PREFACE. Xlll 



are lurking troublesome drones and disgusting para 

 sites. 



Now, although we have a great number of learned 

 men in our country who have distinguished them 

 selves in the different branches of Natural History, 

 still few works have been published on the subject. 

 Much credit is due to Professor Godman for his excel 

 lent work on American Mammalia, which has been 

 augmented by the late publications of Audubon ; also 

 to Wilson, Lucien Bonaparte, and Audubon, who, in 

 their splendid works, have minutely described the 

 North American Birds ; as well as to Professor Hoi- 

 brook for his work on North American Reptiles. 

 Still, in spite of all this, we have no general work on 

 North American Insects, except a few numbers of 

 the American Entomology, by Thomas Say; Major 

 Leconte s Iconography of some genera of Butterflies ; 

 and Dr. Harris s elaborate report on the injurious In 

 sects of Massachusetts. 



It is time that our people in general, and particu 

 larly our youth, should be made acquainted with a 

 class of animals which every where surround us, day 

 and night, and which furnish us amusement, food, col 

 oring substances, and medicines, in order that they 

 may be able to distinguish the useful from the injuri 

 ous ones, the harmless from the noxious, and to dis 

 cover those which may furnish new articles for man 

 ufactures, commerce, and domestic industry. 



For these reasons I have yielded to the solicitations 

 of numerous friends, and am about to lay before the 

 North American public the fruits of my Entomolog 

 ical investigations, pursued for many years during my 

 extensive travels in Europe, Asia, and on this Conti- 



