EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION xv 



came to live at Oxford in the Autumn Term of 1905. 

 After leaving Kuching, and before returning home by 

 way of Japan, Vancouver, and the United States, he 

 spent several weeks travelling in the Malay Archipelago, 

 visiting many of the islands and making collections, 

 which he presented to the Hope Department. Some 

 of the specimens bear the record of interesting observ- 

 ations, throwing light on the difficult problems of adap- 

 tation and evolution in which he took so deep an interest. 



On June 25, 1908, Shelford married Audrey Gurney, 

 daughter of the Rev. Alfred Richardson, vicar of Combe 

 Down, Bath. 



At Oxford Shelford worked with the greatest energy, 

 at once beginning the study of the collection of Orthop- 

 tera in the Hope Department. He had always been 

 especially interested in this order of insects, and was 

 delighted when he found such an immense mass of 

 material at Oxford, rich in types of the species described 

 by the older authorities Walker, West wood, and Bates. 

 He began with the Blattidce, or Cockroaches. In the 

 course of his work upon this group he worked through 

 and named the species in all the great Continental col- 

 lections, describing those that were new in a long series 

 of valuable memoirs. 



Numbers of duplicates were received, and, as the result 

 of his labours, the Hope Department now contains by 

 far the finest and best-arranged collection of Blattidce 

 in the world, including types or co-types of a large 

 proportion of all the known species. Shelford then began 

 to study other Orthopterous groups, especially the Phas- 

 midce and the Mantidce. He was an indefatigable 



