THE BRITISH HEMIPTERA. 6 



sects" places the Homoptera and Hemiptera as distinct 

 orders, the latter with him comprising the Heteroptera only. 

 Curtis, in his " Guide to an Arrangement of British In- 

 sects," does the same. 



Tn the year 1828 Stephens commenced the issue of a gene- 

 ral descriptive work on British Insects, which came out in 

 parts up to the year 1837, when, for various reasons, its 

 issue was discontinued, only a single supplementary number 

 appearing some nine years afterwards. This work naturally 

 commenced with the two most popular orders (the Cole- 

 optera and the Lepidoptera), and as it came to a premature 

 end, the least studied orders fared badly, and the Hemiptera 

 were altogether omitted, and hence we had no descriptive 

 work treating on the British insects of that order. 



Curtis, in his ** British Entomology," figured and described 

 several of the more interesting species. The excellent accu- 

 racy of his figures is too well known to need any special men- 

 tion here. 



The incomplete nature of the " Illustrations of British En- 

 tomology" led to a movement in the year 1849 for the pub- 

 lication of a series of volumes on British Entomology, under 

 the title of " Insecta Britannica." The first scheme of five 

 volumes was accordingly duly announced under the superin- 

 tendence of a committee, consisting of the President and 

 Secretaries of the Entomological Society of London, and 

 Messrs. S pence, Stephens and Saunders ; and this was in- 

 tended to supply the orders or parts of orders most required 

 to complete the descriptions of our British insects. This 

 scheme of five volumes was limited to three volumes on 

 Diptera, entrusted to Mr. Francis Walker; one volume on 

 Micro-Lepidoptera, undertaken by Mr. Stainton ; and one 

 volume on the Hemiptera and Homoptera, which was to 

 have been executed by Mr. Dallas. 



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