PREFACE. 



The section of the British Hemiptera-Homoptera 

 treated of in this Monograph is a large one, and of 

 some importance, though hitherto it has had few close 

 investigators. Nmnerous memoirs and synopsides are 

 scattered through magazines and scientific publications, 

 but no well- sustained effort has been made to illustrate 

 the group. The variations of form, and the complex 

 structure of insects, call for every help ; and it is 

 with a view to such that the present Monograph, with 

 litho-chrome plates, has been attempted. 



Mr. S. H. Scudder, of Harvard Cohege, Mass., has 

 done, and is still doing, good work towards establishing 

 the connection between ancient forms of the Ehynchota 

 and those forms now living. Mr. W. L. Distant has 

 also commenced a ' Monograph of the Oriental Cica- 

 didse,' for the Indian Museum. Such researches are 

 of the highest interest ; but, before comparisons can be 

 adequately made, it is incumbent on biologists of the 

 present generation to tabulate and describe the living 

 species, which at any time may disappear, or, on the 

 other hand, become modified through the action of 

 forces upon life, the obscure motions of which are now 

 being discussed by minds of the highest type. 



Addison, in No. 121 of the ' Spectator,' writes : — "I 

 could wish that out of several writers some one would 



