lO 



HANDBOOK OF ANTS, BEES, ETC. 



The number of insects is so large (about 13,000 different kinds 

 are found in our own country alone) that it will be found impossible 

 by any one to collect the whole at once ; and to study them all is 

 completely out of the question. A single insect, indeed, is ample 



Fig. I.— Hoplistomerus Serripes. 



to occupy a whole lifetime in the elucidation of its life history. 

 Most persons, when they commence to study insects, collect 

 indiscriminately everything which comes in their way ; but they 

 soon find the subject too immense for them to grasp as a whole, 



Fig. 2. — Ledra Aurita (Mag.) 



and they either give up collecting altogether, or else confine their 

 attention to a single group or order of insects. We would recom- 

 mend every young person to make up his mind at the first which 



