INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 1 p" 



view of improving upon him. The first that I shall 

 mention is Professor Scopoli, a name dear to every 

 lover of Natural History, and to whom entomology 

 is under very considerable obligations. In his 

 Entomologia Camiolica, he has distinguished four 

 of the Linnean classes by new names. I must 

 confess I prefer the old ones, on account of that 

 harmony of nomenclature which distinguishes 

 them, from the same word entering into the com- 

 position of them all. The present he names u4cic- 

 leata. Considered out of its connexion, this is 

 certainly more expressive of the peculiar character 

 of the class, than the word Hymenoptera. But, 

 in a system, nothing ought to be taken by itself, 

 and the general harmony and union of parts should 

 be considered as well as individual propriety. I see 

 no good reason, likewise, for his alteration of the 

 Linnean definition of the class. ^'^ ALe quatuor mem- 

 hranacea plerisque. Aculeus caudle, sed nullus in 

 •tnarihus" is more appropriate, especially with re- 

 spect to those genera which have two aculeate 

 sexes, than " Ala quatuor, abdomen uni seocui 

 aculeo armatum." In the genera, this author, 

 instead of improving upon what Linneus had done, 

 goes backward by reuniting Sirex with Ichneumon, 

 and Chrysis with Spher, genera surely sufficiently 

 distinct. His alterations of the Linnean Essential 

 Characters do not seem always to be for the better (>r). 



(r) E. G. He has altered the Linnean essential character of 

 Mutilla. " Aculeus punctorius , alcp neutris nullce" Into " Alee 

 null(s'\ when one sex in this genus has wings, 



c For 



