230 The Field Naturalist's Quarterly August 



some attention to the directions in which he may- 

 most advantageously pursue his studies, both to his own 

 delight and the furtherance of entomology as an exact 

 science. For so large is the subject, whether viewed 

 systematically or economically, that no individual (as 

 Oliver Wendell Holmes l so aptly puts it) can hope to grasp 

 the whole in a single lifetime. 



The great Orders of Insects above referred to each 

 comprise a more or less numerous congregation of species, 

 which are subdivided in sections and families according 

 to their mutual affinities. The Orthoptera, or Grasshopper 

 Order, in Britain is represented by only about forty species ; 

 the Hymenoptera, or Bee Order, on the other hand, is so 

 numerous that the lowest computation of modern times is 

 well over four thousand different kinds. Naturally it takes 

 far more time and trouble to systematically arrange and 

 satisfactorily tabulate a great group like the latter than a 

 small one like the former. Hence the Orthoptera are 

 quite thoroughly known, but no one can draw you up a 

 complete synopsis of the latter for love nor money. 



Unless your bump of originality be something lacking, 

 you will not care to travel country that has already been 

 mapped out by others before you, but rather you will wish 

 to strike out into a terra incognita and break ground where 

 no pioneer has forestalled you — to teach the world some- 

 thing, be it never so little, of which it was previously 

 ignorant. 



With this end in view we can at once eliminate from 

 our studies a great deal of the subject. The British 

 Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, Heteroptera, and, as I have just 

 said, Orthoptera, are so fully investigated that the discovery 

 of a single kind, not previously known to inhabit our 

 islands, raises something of a furore in scientific circles. 

 We still, however, have left the Diptera, Hymenoptera, 

 most of the Hemiptera, Neuroptera, and those curious and 

 anomalous families of insects which have at various periods 

 been placed in different systematic positions. With regard 

 to the Diptera our knowledge of the kinds which are found 

 with us is fairly complete, and we have a capital list of 



1 The Poet at the Breakfast Table. 



