

PREFACE. 



It is three years to-day since I wrote llie preface of the " Ichneuinoninae," 

 and it is most encouraging to notice the very great increase in interest 

 wiiich has become evident in our Britisii Ichneumonidae during the 

 interval. It is not the blatant interest which rushes into print, but tlie 

 careful plodding of the very few who approach Entomology with the sole 

 aim of furtliering it as a Science and of illuminating those many dark 

 spots which still exist in the knowledge of our insular Insecta. Exclusive 

 specialization is a thing to be fought against by all broad-minded, or 

 rather broadly observant collectors, and it is undoubtedly to this cause we 

 owe so very few works treating of specialized subjects, not only here, but 

 throughout the entomological world ; for specialization usually indicates 

 lack of interest in the general subject. Some of the reviews called forth 

 by the " Ichneumoninae," not one of which was written by a man with the 

 remotest knowledge of the subject, were amusing, and in some cases it 

 was most beautifully " damned with faint praise." Little fault was found 

 on the whole, however : one reviewer thought it not sufificiently popular, 

 which is a matter of education, another that the title was misleading, 

 which is a matter of opinion ; further I saw Braconidae and Chalcididae 

 included in one review (this was not the fault of the title), and another 

 clamoured for a transcription of the " original description " of the authf)r 

 of every species, though immediately afterwards owning that that same 

 description would probably ai)[)ly with equal exactitude to a dozen distinct 

 present-day species. 



I may here briefly sketch my modus operandi. I take a large sheet of 

 paper and copy upon it the fragmentary points given in the "original 

 description," adding each detail of that particular species, in its proper 



^^3081 



