xii INTRODUCTORY PREFACE. 



me, now tor some years, in identification and observation of 

 our crop Eehvorms, a l^ranch of research which cannot be 

 carried out trustworthily save under the guidance of an expert 

 in this difficult study. 



I must also add to the names of those to whom I am 

 especially indebted that of my sister. Miss G. E. Ormerod, as 

 my constant colleague, and my unfailing and skilled helper, in 

 all my work ; and I should fail in what is a duty as well as a 

 pleasure if I did not mention, with many thanks, the encourage- 

 ment and help ever heartily and courteously accorded to me 

 by our agricultural, and often by our general, press. 



With regard to information taken from published sources, I 

 trust it will be found that this has always been fully acknow- 

 ledged. In the case of the descriptions of some of the 

 commoner insects, where I have not named (as in my First 

 Edition) any special authority, I have omitted this, partly 

 because these are so often taken from collation of accounts to 

 be found in all the monographs and entomological works that 

 deal with these subjects, that it is impossible to name one of 

 these more than another ; and also because, in the long series 

 of years in which I have worked on Agricultural Entomology, 

 I have had such frequent opportunities of examining crop 

 insects in their different stages, and under different circum- 

 stances of feeding, that I have become personally acquainted, 

 from life, with much of what, at first, I thought it right to 

 give the abstract of information in quotation. 



With regard to assistance given me, by use, purchased or 

 otherwise, of figures, it appears to me that all work beyond 

 that of the author of the book should be specifically acknow- 

 ledged ; and therefore, although I am aware that the following 

 arrangement is not the custom here, I have followed the 

 example set in publications of similar nature to my own by 

 leading official Entomologists of Canada and the U.S.A. ; and 

 I trust that I may be found to have lioncsthj acknowledged the 

 aid cQurtcoudij accorded. The number of figures given in this 

 Edition have been much added to, and in some cases re-drawn; 

 and I acknowledge the following, with many thanks, as from 

 the sources named below. 



A large number, which I am permitted to use by the 



