There are in the cabinets of this country about 130 native 



species of the various genera forming the order Trichoptera „ 



established by Mr. Kirby : of this number the greater portion | 



are unnamed and undescribed ; of those that have been noticed 



by authors, descriptions may be found in the works of Linnaeus, 



Eabricius, and the 13th volume of Latreille's Histoire Natu- 



relle. 



Neglected as Trichoptera has been, it is difficult if not danger- 

 ous at present to enter far upon the subject of species. Dr. Leach 

 divided the order into 12 genera, but no characters have been 

 published of them even, excepting four, viz. Leptocerus, Odonto- 

 cerus, Phryganea, and LimnepJdlus. 



Of the genus Leptocerus there are probably 20 British species : 

 the elegant one figured has been selected from its appearing to 

 be a nondescript ; its rarity does not less entitle it to illustration, 

 for I have not observed it in any of the cabinets of my friends : 

 the specimens figured and described were taken by myself resting 

 upon the paling which surrounds the Regent's Park, in the sum- 

 mer of 1822 : the end of last August I took 3 from off plants in 

 a marshy situation near the sea, upon the estate of Sir Thomas 

 Gooch, bart., Benacre, Suffolk : being certain that those which I 

 took near town appeared much earlier in the year, I suspected 

 that they were another species, but I cannot discover the slightest 

 variation in them. 



With the larvae and pupae we are unacquainted ; but little 

 doubt exists, from their being found in the neighbourhood of 

 streams or stagnant waters, that they are in their economy Hke 

 the rest of the family, the beauty of whose habitations as well as 

 the instinct displayed in the construction of them never fail to 

 excite our admiration. An investigation of their economy would 

 in all probability put us in possession of good secondary generic 

 characters : it would not be attended with any difficulty to those 

 who live in neighbourhoods where they are found, for the cadis is 

 well known and celebrated amongst fishermen as a bait, and the 

 case-worm may be met with in every brook and pond ; the sub- 

 ject could not but be highly interesting to any one who loves to 

 explore and study the works of Nature. Whenever such materials 

 can be obtained as satisfactorily to identify the different stages of 

 the insect figured, I shall not fail to avail myself of the opportu- 

 nity of laying them before my readers. -^ 



The type of the genus {L. interruptus) is figured in Donovan's 

 Brit. Ins. v. 16. t. 551. The plant figured, upon which L. 

 ochraceus was found in the autumn, is Epiloh'mm hirsutum 

 (Large-flowered Willow-herb). 



