iv PREFACE. 
mals, they have been the most observed, the most 
studied, and are those upon which the labours of na- 
turalists have been the most exercised. But in the 
United States, entomology, of all the sciences, has 
been regarded with the least attention by the learn- 
ed. ‘The attractive charms of natural history have, 
indeed, with us, allured many votaries ; but these, in 
general, choose those departments for their study 
of which the knowledge is more readily acquired, 
and where the labour of initiation is not arduous 
or protracted. Hence the higher departments of 
zoology, botany, &c. are more frequently selected, 
offering as they do more prominent and obvious 
characters, easily detected by the investigator. En- 
tomology, on the other hand, although ata dis- 
tance captivating to the beholder, yet, when arrived 
at its threshold, he is opposed by so many difficul- 
ties, that he is deterred from prosecuting further 
his researches. The variety of systems, the ob- 
scurity of the distinctive characteristics, and often 
the great requisite nicety of discrimination upon 
which some of those systems are founded, the 
want of a guide such as would be afforded by good 
books of plates,—all conspire to retard the pro- 
gress of the student. To these obstacles we may 
