-^4. 



PREFACE. 



The 'Entomologist' was projected and commenced in 

 October, 1840, the first number being published on the 1st 

 of November of that year. The First Volume, consisting of 

 twenty-six sixpenny numbers, was completed on the 1st of 

 December, 1842, with the following announcement: — 



"The 'Entomologist' under its present title will now 

 cease, but the spirit of the work, more particularly as regards 

 those brief but highly interesting communications which my 

 correspondeuts have from time to time contributed to the 

 chapter intituled ' Varieties,' will be continued in the pages 

 of the ' Zoologist.' " 



This announcement was literally and effectively carried 

 out, the 'Zoologist' being the only medium through which 

 entomologists corresponded until April, 1856, when Mr. 

 Stainton commenced the 'Entomologist's Weekly Intelli- 

 gencer,' and thus divided the entomological public. The 

 ' intelligencer' came to a close in 1861, Mr. Stainton writing 

 thus in explanation : — 



" Entomology in England is passing through a phase of 

 depression ; we doubt much if we could now make out a list 

 of 500 English entomologists : to what extent this may have 

 arisen from the Volunteer movement, the deleterious effects 

 of which have been so great, it is impossible to say ; but this 

 is evident, that, as action and reaction are equal and op- 

 posite, and as a few years back Entomology in England was 

 unnaturally buoyant, so now it is depressed in a corre- 

 sponding degree." 



My entomological correspondents seemed to think dif- 

 ferently ; for not only during the existence of the ' Intel- 

 ligencer' was I repeatedly pressed to undertake a journal 

 devoted to the Science, but in the interval between the 

 demise of the 'Intelligencer' and the birth of the short-lived 

 'Weekly Entomologist' I had no less than ninety-seven 

 pressing solicitations to commence an entomological perio- 

 dical. 





