Introduction 



a wholesale wine merchant, a lawyer, a chemist, an undertaker, 

 a librarian, an army officer, a navy officer, and any number of 

 physicians and teachers who take the greatest delight in the 

 study and collection of insects. Heaven will bless the old- 

 fashioned country doctor for his self-sacrificing life and the good 

 he has done to humanity. That will everywhere be granted, 

 but he deserves an additional star in his immortal crown for the 

 fact that he was the original naturalist in this country. Very 

 many of our early workers were country doctors, and it has 

 been through their influence that many naturalists have been made. 

 The principal aim of this book is to encourage the study of a 

 rather neglected aspect of nature. The groups of insects which 

 it considers are of very great extent. The wealth of material is 

 so great that it has been only with the greatest difficulty that the 

 book has been held within reasonable bounds. We have other 

 books on insects, many of them much better from several points 

 of view than this can hope to be, yet there has been a distinct 

 object in writing this one, and if I had not thought that it was 

 needed I should never have written it. One of the main desires 

 in my mind in planning the method of treatment has been to 

 encourage the study of life histories of insects. Where possible 

 a typical life history has been given in each family treated. 

 Some of these are moderately complete as to main facts, while 

 others leave gaps in the life-round of the species. Such gaps 

 can in many instances be easily filled by careful study. In a 

 number of important and interesting groups, however, no 

 typical life history can be given for the simple reason that no one 

 has ever devoted sufficient care and time to the subject. The 

 army of nature workers now springing up should not devote 

 their whole time to the well-trodden paths of long known and 

 clearly ascertained truths when they might just as easily, if they 

 knew just where to look and what to do, study some unknown 

 life-round and learn exact facts which would be contributions to 

 knowledge. Professor L. C. Miall, of England, who has written 

 several most interesting books on insects, has been a leader in this 

 kind of work, but in this country very few perfectly complete 

 life histories have been worked out. Most of these have been 

 done by economic entomologists, and hence nearly all that we 

 know are of insects of economic importance. Very many 

 others, however, of which we are more or less ignorant, offer 



