HEMIPTERA. 



The British Hemiptera. Vol. I. Hemiptera — He- 



TEROPTERA. j8?/ JOHN WiLLIAM DoUGLAS and 



John Scott. London: piihlished fo7' the Ray So- 

 ciety, bi/ Robert Hardwickey 192, Piccadilly. 1865. 



The work now before us is one of the most important con- 

 tributions to British Entomology that has ever issued from 

 the press. 



It treats of a group of insects hitherto little studied in this 

 country ; but of which, in the volume before us, we have 

 elaborately detailed descriptions of 352 species. 



Of the seven main orders of insects (the Coleoptera, Or- 

 thoptera, Neuroptera, Symenopteraj Lepidoptera^ He- 

 miptera, and Diptera), several have been almost neglected 

 by British Entomologists ; and whilst the Coleoptera and 

 Lepidopte7'a have always been collected and studied with 

 more or less assiduity, the Orthoptera, Hemiptera, and 

 Diptera, have found their votaries few and far between. 

 Indeed, in many respects these insects have fared worse of 

 late years than formeily, for at one time it was the custom 

 for Entomologists to collect all the orders of insects ; and 

 then, at least, some amount of attention used to be paid to 

 what have recently been appropriately termed " the neg- 

 lected orders." 



As the number of species in each order grew upon us, the 

 more the insects were collected and studied, it soon became 

 needful for Entomologists to select some individual order as 



1867. B 



