PEEFACE. 



During the last few years the Orthoptcra of the British 

 Museuin have been rearranged throughout by Mr. W. F. Kirby, 

 and now fill 38 cabinets, exclusive of the British collection. 

 In order to carry out this work, Mr. Kirby found it necessary 

 to prepare a complete Catalogue of the Order, which the 

 Trustees have decided to publish in its entirety, believing that 

 it will be found extremely useful to students of Entomology, 

 especially as no recent or complete catalogues of most of the 

 families exist. 



In 1892 the number of described species of Orthoptera was 

 estimated at 8000, but this number has since been largely 

 increased ; and Mr. Kirby has himself described numerous 

 new species, chiefly in the ' Annals and Magazine of Natural 

 History ' and in the ' Transactions ' of the Zoological and 

 Entomological Societies, during the progress of his work. 

 The types of these species are all in the British Museum, 

 with the exception of a few (chiefly African) in the collection 

 of Mr. W. L. Distant. 



The most important special collections of Orthoptera in the 

 British Museum are those foi'med for the preparation of 

 the ' Biologia Centrall-Americana,^ of which the fauiilies 

 ForJicuUdce, Blattulce, Mantidce, Gryllidce^ and Phasgonuridcp, 

 have already been received ; the De Bormans collection of 



