338 



only American naturalist who has made known to us any of these curious 

 objects. In the following contributions will be described some of those 

 which are to be found in this vicinity; a part of them are supposed to be 

 new, and others not fully investigated. It is thought that this may be of 

 some service to those who are commencing the study of entomology, and 

 may stimulate them to pursue this interesting branch of natural Jiistory, 

 and to seize eveiy opportunity of recording the focts, wliich may come to 

 their knowledge, respecting the insects they investigate. If, hereafter, it 

 shall be shown that any of them were previously known, it will give us 

 pleasure to acknowledge it, when duly informed. It certainly cannot be a 

 cause for reproach that among the many rare, expensive, or inaccessible 

 European works on Entomology, or in the very brief and unessential de- 

 scriptions of others, the characters of some of these supposed new species 

 may be detected. The number of known plants in the United States, ac- 

 cording to Mr. Nuttall, is about 5000: INIr. Kirby states that insects are to 

 plants as 6 to 1 ; according to this ratio the number of our insects must 

 amount to 30,000. Mr. Say has described about 1200 new species, and 

 perhaps 3 or 4 thousand may be known to Europeans : still a vast number 

 must remain unnoticed. Shall those, then, who have studied the charac- 

 ters and investigated the habits of these insects in their native wilds, delay 

 publishing the fruits of their labors because they may possibly, now and 

 then, add a new synonym to nomenclature? The following appropriate 

 quotation may well close these preliminary remarks. " This procrastination 

 on our part, in most cases, springs from a laudable though erroneous motive. 

 We aim at a point of pei'fection never to be attained. Year after year we 

 keep back that knowledge we have already acquired, in the hopes of ren- 

 dering it more perfect. New discoveries arise, yet we Avait for more. 

 Meantime the stream of life is sloAvly passing from us; Ave find those discov- 

 eries on which we had built our future feme, anticipated by contemporaries. 

 Forcibly impressed with this conviction, I shall make no apology on this, 

 or any future occasion for laying before the readers of this journal detached 

 descriptions or isolated remarks on such new objects as may come before 

 me; imperfect as these observations may be, they may stimulate the in- 

 quiries of others; and, at all events, secure to this country, in some meas- 

 ure, the credit of making known the natural productions of her own posses- 

 sions." 



For the characters of the families and genera, Samouelle's " Useful Com- 

 pendium," — the article '■'■Entomology'^ in Brewster's Encyclopedia, or the 

 3d volume of Cuvier's " Rfegne Animal," may be consulted. 



