Xl 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-hke 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 
single hair of their magnificent, variegated 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 dwelling; 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 
