BRITISH INSECTS 



(General) 



Introduction. — The classification of the Insecta — 

 even if attention is restricted to British species — is so 

 often changed, and various methods adopted, by dif- 

 ferent systematists, that it is difficult to set out with 

 any degree of certainty a general rule that can be safely 

 followed. For the purpose of this volume, however, it 

 will be sufficient if we classify the insects with which 

 we are here concerned under Ten Orders, commencing 

 with the Bristle-Tails and Spring-Tails included in the 

 Order Aptera, and concluding with the highly-organised 

 Ants, Bees, and Wasps, which find a place in the Order 

 Hymenoptera. 



In the ten Orders of Insects which are represented in 

 this, and its companion volume : " British Butterflies 

 and Moths," it is safe to assert that over seventeen 

 thousand species are inhabitants of our own country, 

 and whilst it is quite impossible to include more than a 

 fraction of these in our present survey, it will perhaps 

 afford interest if we set out the estimated number of 

 British species in each Order, thus : — Aptera 200 species ; 



X 



