INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 13 



We see what a near approach these illustrious 

 Englishmen made to nature with respect to this 

 class, and that in this country it assumed some 

 distinct form, and those foundations were laid, 

 upon which a perfect system might be erected. 

 But though the class was nearly extricated, the 

 genera still remaihed involved in confusion, dis- 

 tinguished by no certain characters, and often 

 merely by names (o). 



Such was the state of this class, when Linneus, 

 amongst his other immortal labours, undertook the 

 reformation of entomology. The first outline of 

 his Sy sterna Naturce was published in 1735; 

 whether at that time he was acquainted with what 

 had been done in England in that science, I do 

 not know, but I should think, if he had bestowed 

 much attention on the Methodus Insect orum of Ray, 

 he would have gone further than he did in that out- 

 line : for In it he puts into one class, the Lepidop- 

 tera, Neuroptera, Hymenoptera, and Dipiera, to 

 which he gives the name of ylngioptera, a term of 

 similar import with Neuroptera{p). This class he 

 defines " Alee omriibus dat(^ elytris destitut<rJ" In 

 it he gives the characters of only two genuine 

 Hymenopterous genera. Apis and Ichneumon^ 

 which he draws from variations In the Aculeus(q). 



(o) I have passed over the system of Swammerdam, as built 

 intirely on the metamorphoses of insects. 



(/)) Them. Aiyno)/, vas, and TTTspv, ala. 



(rj) Apis Cauda aculeo simplici. Alae quatuor. fchneunion 

 Cauda aculeo partite. A\x quatuor. 



The 



