This is the first of a series of Handbooks i7itended to serve in the 



first instance as guides to the diffei-ent branches of the Collection of 



Eco7iomic Entomology which is in course of formation at the Bethnal 



Green Branch of the South Kensington Museum, by order of the 



Lords of the Cof?wiittee of Council on Education ; and in the next 



flace as practical treatises on the subject for the use of the public 



generally. The Collection has now become large enough to furnish a 



basis for sttch a work^ and the order in which it is proposed to take 



up the other subjects is that followed ift the published list of the 



contents of the collection, viz., the Aptera {spiders, mites, 6^r.), which 



form the stibject of this ha7idbook ; then the Bugs ; the Locusts, 



Grasshoppers, Cockroaches, and Earwigs ; the Two-winged Elies ; 



the Bees, Wasps, 6^^. ; the Dragon-flies and May-flies ; Butterflies 



and Moths ; and, lastly, the Beetles. 



