XU PREFACE. 



The study and knowledge of the companions that 

 swarm around us on every tree and flower, in the air 

 about us, and on the earth beneath us, must be im- 

 portant and interesting to every one, of whatever men- 

 tal capacity or taste. And it has been very generally 

 so considered, for the rich and poor, lettered and un- 

 lettered, the statesman and philosopher, manufacturer 

 and merchant, husbandman and horticulturist, clergy- 

 man and physician, have often made this study the 

 principal occupation of their leisure hours. 



There is no class of animals with which so many 

 persons have been occupied, and on which so many 

 valuable and splendid works have been published, as 

 on Insects, particularly Beetles and Butterflies. None 

 of Earth's creatures have attracted more universal ad- 

 miration than these. Many to whom the Book of Na- 

 ture is a sealed book have been enticed, by the splen- 

 dor of their color and their fairy -like motions, to hunt 

 for them in meadows, fields, and woods, to place them 

 as ornaments in rich frame-work upon the walls of 

 their parlors, or to nourish and raise them with the 

 greatest care in their rooms, that they may not lose a 

 sinaie hair of their maoiiificent, varieo^ated dress. 



No class of animals presents so great diversity of 

 occupation and so many grades of society as the In- 

 sects. Here we see the industrious laborer busy at 

 his work, there the lazy lounging beggar ; here upon 

 the leafy boughs, or before the gates of their subter- 

 ranean abodes, myriads of musicians are playing their 

 fiddles, and there the skillful artist is building his won- 

 derful dwelhng ; while above in the blue sky flutters 

 a high nobility, clad in gold, silver, purple, and silk, 

 fed on the nectar of flowers ; and on the earth below 



