INTRODUCTION. 



X HE following Catalogue was originally designed to have ap- 

 peared as the precursor of my " Illustrations of British Ento- 

 mology," but the magnitude of the undertaking, as well as the 

 necessity for previously commencing the latter work, so far frus- 

 trated my designs as to render it precursive in part only. 



I have been induced to publish it in its present form (as the 

 work above alluded to will not only require several years for its 

 elaboration and completion, but must necessarily be proportionally 

 more expensive and bulky,) in order to meet the wishes of several 

 entomological friends, who have repeatedly solicited me to furnish 

 them with an arrangement of all our indigenous insects, from the 

 circumstance that scarcely one-third have yet been commemorated 

 as British ; and the works hitherto published on the subject are 

 either confined to particular orders, families, or genera, or are so 

 limited when embracing all the orders, and are nearly all, more- 

 over, either arranged in conformity with the Linnean system, or 

 totally destitute of arrangement, that they render but little infor- 

 mation to the student who is desirous of obtaining a more perfect 

 knowledge of the classification, either of the genera or of the species. 

 Although fully aware of the objections which have been so fre- 

 quently urged by the most learned entomologists against the pub- 

 lication of mere catalogues, I feel confident that the plan and object 

 of the following will so far have iheir utility, as at least to disarm 

 my compatriots of the opposition they have hitherto exhibited to- 

 wards similar performances, as in fact it may be considered as an 

 appendage to my " Illustrations ;" and it cannot have escaped the 

 notice of the most cursory inspector of entomological collections, 

 that the nomenclature of each dift'ers in numberless instances, and 

 that various names are applied in dift'erent cabinets to the same iden^ 

 tlcal species. Such confusion arises from several causes; primarily 

 from the difficulty there is in many instances of correctly ascer- 

 taining the name given by the first describer, either from the de- 

 scription being so vague and indefinite as to preclude the possibility 

 of accurately determining the species intended, or from the imprac- 

 ticability of obtaining the books in which the first description is to 

 be found ; secondarily, from the contemporaneovis appearance of 

 two or more publications upon the same group of insects, in which 

 the new species are necessarily (unless by the merest accident) 



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