PREFACE. 



The preparation of a monograph of the Strepsiptera received its 

 first impetus in 1903, when Mr. J. C. Crawford collected the type 

 of Crawfordia pulvinipes. At that time I was engaged in a study 

 of the habits of the Coleopterous family Rhipiphorida?. The pub- 

 lished statements of the similarity of the so-called "Stylopidae" and 

 Rhipiphoridae led me to look into the literature immediately, and 

 almost my first discovery was that the Strepsiptera or "Stylopidse" 

 were not Coleopterous. 



A search through the Hymenopterous collections at the University 

 of Nebraska gave good results, for several species were discovered. 

 The check lists only gave two species to the United States. It was 

 therefore with considerable zeal that I continued the work of inves- 

 tigating the group while at Agricultural College, Mississippi, in 1904, 

 and later at the laboratories of the Southern Field Crop Insect 

 Investigations of the Bureau of Entomology in Texas and at the 

 U. S. National Museum and various libraries of Washington. 



This bulletin has been gradually taking its present form since 

 1906, and was finally submitted for publication, through Dr. L. O. 

 Howard, on March 1, 1909. 



W. D wight Pierce. 



