INTRODUCTION. 



On an average, from 500 to 000 letters of inquiry are received at this 

 office each month. A very considerable number of these inquiries 

 relate to insects which are found in houses and which either annoy the 

 occupants by their direct attacks or are injurious to household goods 

 and provisions. The available literature on this class of insects is not 

 extensive. Prof. C. H. Eernald, of the Massachusetts Agricultural 

 Experiment Station, published a short bulletin on the general subject 

 some three years ago, but only a few of the most prominent insects of 

 this class were treated. Other American articles are scattered in 

 various publications, in the reports of the State entomologists and 

 bulletins of the entomologists of the State agricultural experiment 

 stations, and in the entomological and other scientific journals. A 

 small volume was published in England in 1893, which bears the title 

 of Our Household Insects, by Mr. Edward A. Butler, a competent 

 entomologist, who has brought together a mass of interesting facts. 

 This little volume, however, treats of English insects only. There is 

 abundant room, then, for the present publication. Much that is pre- 

 sented herewith is based upon original observations in the office, and all 

 accessible publications upon the species treated have been consulted. 

 As will be observed from the title-page, the preparation of the bulletin 

 has been the joint work of the writer and of Messrs. Marlatt and Chit- 

 tenden. Mr. Chittenden's work has been confined to a concluding 

 chapter on the subject of the species that affect dry vegetable foods, a 

 labor for which he is particularly well fitted by reason of his long 

 study of these species. There has been no systematic division in the 

 work of the main portion of the bulletin between the writer and Mr. 

 Marlatt. Each of us has chosen the topics in which he felt especially 

 interested. It results that longer or shorter articles by one or the 

 other are arranged according to the proper position of the topic in the 

 scheme as a whole and are not brought together under the respective 

 authors. The authorship of the individual articles, however, may be 

 readily accredited by the fact that not only is it displayed in the table 

 of contents, but by the further fact that the contributions are initialed 

 in every case. 



The very curious but not unexpected condition has been shown in 

 the preparation of this bulletin that of some of our commonest house 

 hold insects the life history is not known with any degree of exactness. 



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