XXX INTRODUCTION. 



in deciding to what group an insect under examination 

 properly belongs. The elytra are not figured. 



The reader is next referred to a series of memoirs 

 written by the late Mr. John Scott, commencing with 

 a paper entitled " AKeview of the Family Delphacidae, 

 and Descriptions of several New Species, &c." This 

 and other communications by the same author are 

 scattered through the volumes of the ' Entomologist's 

 Monthly Magazine,' commencing vol. vii., and con- 

 tinuing over the later ones till the year 1881. In 

 cases of doubtful species Mr. Scott had the advantage 

 of submitting them to the inspection of M. Lethierry, 

 who, as before noted, had the possession of Fieber's 

 drawings for reference. 



I believe that the first systematic catalogue of British 

 Hemiptera, including the Cicadaria and Phytothires, 

 was compiled by Messrs. John William Douglas and 

 John Scott, and published in 1876 by the Entomological 

 Society of London. The portion referring to the 

 Homoptera, commencing with the Fulgorinse, cata- 

 logues, without describing, all the then-known British 

 species with their synonyms, from genus Cixius 

 through Typhlocyha to Beltoccphalus. 



These insects were mostly represented by examples 

 in the cabinets of these authors. Through the great 

 liberality of Mr. Douglas, who has granted to me the 

 loan of many of his types, I am enabled to figure 

 insects which probably I never otherwise could have 

 obtained. 



Unfortunately the late Mr. John Scott's collection has 

 been broken up ; some of the rarer species, it is 

 believed, have been incorporated in the British 

 National collection, but the larger portion of the rest 

 has become the property of Mr. P. B. Mason, F.L.S., 

 who, learning that I was interested, in the like 

 liberal spirit consigned to my keeping for the purposes 

 of comparison a considerable part of Mr. Scott's col- 

 lection, duly labelled by Scott himself. 



The only other British work of consequence treating 



