INTRODUCTION. 5 



important ones to be brought more prominently into view. No 

 figure, however, can convey a knowledge of the creature equal to 

 that to be derived from a glance at the specimen itself. The 

 purpose has been, therefore, always to place specimens of the 

 actual insect alongside of the coloured figures; and where this has 

 not been done, the omission is to be referred to the incomplete- 

 ness of a collection only in progress of formation, not to intention 

 or neglect. For the same reason models of injuries done to 

 perishable objects have been added. 



The system of displaying the collection in cases, if it has its 

 advantages to the public, has one serious inconvenience to the 

 maker of the collection. He cannot go straight forward with his 

 subject as in the pages of a book, leaving ofif in the middle of a 

 word or a subject at the bottom of the page or case. Each case 

 requires to be treated as a separate subject or chapter of a subject 

 or paragraph of a chapter. It must, to a certain extent, be 

 complete within itself. A new subject cannot be well introduced 

 on the last line of the case, even although the subject is finished : 

 and still the case must be filled. 



This special difficulty has been met without the introduction 

 of irrelevant matter, occasionally by the addition of kindred 

 species, which throw light upon the relations of the insects under 

 consideration (although they may themselves have no strict right 

 to a place under the head of Economic Entomology), and at other 

 times by the introduction of vignettes and tail pieces. These 

 have been intentionally made rather of a bright and cheerful 

 character with the view of catching the eye of the passer-by, who 

 might not otherwise deign to pay any attention to what he may 

 consider a dry and uninviting subject, and with the hope that 

 when so arrested he may extend his observations to the surround- 

 ing objects. 



It is unnecessary to say that neither the collection nor this 

 work has any pretensions to being a work on Systematic 

 Entomology. Those who wish for information on that subject 



