Introduction 



NOT long since I wrote to a friend, a nature lover, 

 as follows: "The most charming monograph in 

 any department of our natural history that I have read 

 in many a year is on our solitary wasps, by George 

 W. Peckham and his wife, of Wisconsin, a work so 

 delightful and instructive that it is a great pity it is 

 not published in some popular series of nature books, 

 where it could reach its fit audience, instead of being 

 handicapped as a State publication." This end has now 

 been brought about, and the book revised and enlarged 

 with much new material and many new illustrations 

 placed within easy reach of all nature lovers, to whom it 

 gives me pleasure to commend it. It is a wonderful record 

 of patient, exact, and loving observation, which has all the 

 interest of a romance. It opens up a world of Lilliput 

 right at our feet, wherein the little people amuse and 

 delight us with their curious human foibles and whim- 

 sicalities, and surprise us with their intelligence and 

 individuality. Here I had been saying in print that I 

 looked upon insects as perfect automata, and all of the 

 same class as nearly alike as the leaves of the trees or 

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