6 THE BRITISH HEMIPTERA. 



ing only of 352 species should extend to 627 pages ; but one 

 main point in describing the species of a " neglected order" 

 was to describe them so fully and so minutely that the 

 descriptions should serve not only to distinguish the insects 

 fi'om the other known species, but also from any new and 

 closely allied species which the future investigations of Ento- 

 mologists might bring to light. 



In the well-worked orders of Cohoptera and Lepidoptera 

 we have every year a crop of new species added to our lists, 

 and in the order Hemiptera we can have no doubt whatever, 

 that vei-y many novelties are yet to be detected ; and hence 

 the lengthy and detailed descriptions are really invaluable, 

 and any attempt to have rendered them more concise would 

 have detracted greatly from the value of the work. A point 

 which will no doubt cause more embarrassment to many is 

 the multiplicity of genera — the 352 species being here 

 divided amongst 160 genera, and no less than 93 genera 

 comprising only single species. 



We presume, however, that this must have been an incon- 

 venience which could not be avoided, and which was inherent 

 in the nature of the subject. 



On this point the authors should be allowed to speak for 

 themselves ; the italics, however, in the following passage are 

 our own. 



'^ On the continent the order has received great attention 

 from eminent authors, and we have had to i-efer to their works 

 for information ; the latest and those to which we are most 

 indebted being by Fieber and Flor. 



" Fieber's * Europaischen Hemiptera,' published in 1861, 

 containing descriptions of all the European species, is the con- 

 densed result of a lifetime of observation, and will ever remain 

 a monument of methodised labour and the genius of the 

 author. 



