4 THE BRITISH HEMIPTERA. 



Unfortunately, however, Mr. Dallas seemed to lose heart 

 as the time approached for the preparation of his volume, 

 and, although the other four volumes were regularly issued, 

 the fifth volume of the series has never yet made its appear- 

 ance, and hence a descriptive work on the British Semiptera 

 still remained a great desideratum. 



Mr. Douglas, who had for many years devoted his atten- 

 tion almost exclusively to the Lepidoptera of this country, 

 and to whose exertions, amongst the smaller Lepidoptera, 

 Mr. Stainton's volume of the *' Insecta Britannica" bearscon- 

 stant witness, had after a time found that his immediate 

 neighbourhood furnished him with so little of novelty in that 

 order, that he turned his attention more and more to the 

 '^v\[\&\\Coleoptera. After a few years' active search, these also 

 ceased to reward him with so many interesting captures, and 

 then he gradually turned his attention to one of our hitherto 

 most neglected orders, — the Hemiptera. 



It was about this time that Mr. Scott, who had been for 

 some time well known as an indefatigable collector and ob- 

 server oi' Ijepid()pte7'a and Coleopte7'a in Scotland and in the 

 North of England, came to reside in the neighbourhood of 

 London, and it chanced that he selected for his abode the 

 parish of Lee, in which Mr. Douglas had for many years 

 resided ; hence it happened that when Mr. Douglas turned 

 his attention to the much-neglected British Ilemrpte7'a, he 

 found in his friend and neighbour, Mr. Scott, one who was 

 ready to aid and assist him in his new studies, and the 

 co-operation of a hearty and zealous friend in such a matter 

 is invaluable. 



In collecting insects of an order, of which no British de- 

 scriptive work existed, it was necessary to have constant 

 recourse to continental works, of which those of Fieber, on 

 the Hemiptera of Europe, and Flor, on the Mhynchota of 

 Livonia, occupied the first place. 



