PREFACE. 



Having spent many happy hours with the lamented author 

 in the examination of the beautiful forms of which this 

 book treats, I have felt it a pleasant thing to be associated, 

 even in so humble a capacity, with its introduction to the 

 Entomological world ; and the little service I have had the 

 privilege of rendering in the revision of the proof-sheets of 

 the latter half of the work, has been quite a labour of love — 

 enabling me to offer a slight testimony of affection to a kind 

 friend, and of my personal interest in that family of the 

 Coleoptera which had first attracted my attention by the 

 singular loveliness of its numerous species. 



A careful revision by the author himself would have 

 been of incalculable value to the work ; its usefulness would 

 also have been greatly enhanced, had it been possible for him 

 to have made those modifications and additions which his 

 investigations in America afforded materials for. But, of 

 course, this was not possible. There is, however, the conso- 

 lation of knowing that the student can obtain the results of 

 those later researches, in the author's memoir, entitled 

 " Revision of the Coccinellidse of the United States," to 

 which Mr Janson refers in the note which follows this 

 preface. 



When, in the autumn of 1872, Mr Crotch took his 

 departure for the United States of America, as the first 



