" Insects are usually pointed out to us by tliose who are about us as ugly, 

 filthy, and noxious creatures; and the whole insect- world — butterflies, 

 perhaps, and some few others excepted — are devoted by one universal ban to 

 proscription and execration, as fit only to be trodden under our feet and 

 crushed ; so that, often, before we can persuade ourselves to study them we 

 have to remove from our minds prejudices deeply rooted and of long standing." 



— KlEBY AND SpeNCE. 



" The importance of insects to us, both as sources of good or evil, I shall 

 endeavour to prove at large hereafter; but for the present, taking this for 

 granted, it necessarily follows that the study of them must also be important : 

 for when we sufl'er from them, if we do not know the cause, how are we to 

 applj' a remedy that may diminish or prevent their ravages ? Ignorance in 

 this respect often occasions us to mistake our enemies for our friends, and 

 our friends for our enemies ; so that when we think to do good we only do 

 harm, destroying the innocent and letting the guilty escaj)e. Many such 

 instances have occurred. Middleton, in his 'Agriculture of Middlesex,' 

 speaking of the plant-louse that is so injurious to the bean, tells us that the 

 ladybirds are supposed either to generate or to feed upon them. Had he 

 been an entomologist he would have been in no doubt whether they were 

 beneficial or injurious; on the contrary, he would have recommended that 

 they should be encouraged as friends to man, since no insects are greater 

 devourers of plant-lice." — Id. 



