THE BRITISH HEMIPTERA. 9 



tera—Homoptera" In this they will, no doubt, be much 

 ai^sisted by the series of papers now being published in the 

 Entomologist's Monthly Magazine, entitled '^ An Essay to- 

 wards a Knowledge of British Homoptera," from the pen of 

 the Rev. T. A. Marshall, a treatise which, under so modest 

 a title, is most philosophically written and of great scientific 

 value. 



The reader who takes up Messrs. Douglas and Scott's 

 volume in order to learn from a perusal of it something of 

 the natural history of the insects mentioned therein, is likely 

 to be disappointed ; the observations have yet to be made, the 

 natural history of the British IIemij)tera has yet to be writ- 

 ten — and the reason is manifest — natural history is the 

 biography of individual species, and where the species were 

 unnoticed and unheeded, because they could not be named, 

 no opportunity occurred of contributing to their biography. 

 We trust, now that our stand-punkt is altogether altered with 

 reference to these insects, that we shall soon witness an im- 

 provement in this respect. 



The authors observe in the Introduction at p. 5, that " it is 

 probably in consequence of the fact that the Semiptera — 

 Heteroptera are in all stages of their existence active and 

 suctorial, and the consequent difficulty of supplying them, in 

 confinement, with fresh appropriate food, that but few obser- 

 vations on their natural history have been made or recorded. 

 There is a gradual development of the creature after it leaves 

 the egg, not only in size but in the perfection of its organs. 

 The larva resembles the imago, and is said to cast its skin 

 three times before it reaches the pupa state ; then the insect 

 is still more like the imago, but some of its parts, such as the 

 ocelli, wings and claws, are either rudimentary, or are barely 

 indicated, and only become perfected after the last moult. 

 But whether each species casts its skin the same number of 



