Introduction 



NOT long since I wrote to a friend, a nature lover, 

 as follows: "The most charming monograph in 

 any department of our natural history that I have read 

 in many a year is on our solitary wasps, by George 

 W. Peckham and his wife, of Wisconsin, — a work so 

 delightful and instructive that it is a great pity it is 

 not published in some popular series of nature books, 

 where it could reach its fit audience, instead of being 

 handicapped as a State publication." This end has now 

 been brought about, and the book — revised and enlarged 

 with much new material and many new illustrations — 

 placed within easy reach of all nature lovers, to whom it 

 gives me pleasure to commend it. It is a wonderful record 

 of patient, exact, and loving observation, which has all the 

 interest of a romance. It opens up a world of Lilliput 

 right at our feet, wherein the little people amuse and 

 delight us with their curious human foibles and whim- 

 sicahties, and surprise us with their inteUigence and 

 individuahty. Here I had been saying in print that I 

 looked upon insects as perfect automata, and all of the 

 same class as nearly alike as the leaves of the trees or 



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