PREFACE. xi 



regularity are detected in other branches of the organized creation, even in that with 

 which we ourselves are immediately connected, and the presumption thus arises that 

 they extend throughout nature ; then at least ought naturalists to attend to this 

 delightful field for discovery, and by none ought it to be despised. Those who 

 take up the subject in this light, will even excuse the entomologist for making 

 insects the particular object of his study, in preference to the other branches of 

 nature. Entomologists indeed, when their researches are properly directed, may truly 

 say with the poet, — 



" In tenia labor, at tenuis non gloria." 



For it is among insects, above all other groupes of animals, that, owing to their 

 myriads of species, the mode in which nature's chain is linked — a mode, the know- 

 ledge of which comprizes all knowledge in Natural History — will be most evident, 

 and therefore most easily detected. Nay, with a view to the discovery of the natural 

 system, a local descriptive catalogue of insects, arranged according to their natural 

 affinities, is more useful than a descriptive catalogue of Vertebrata on the same plan ; 

 and this, because the comparative paucity of vertebrated species in a given place will 

 render such a catalogue infinitely more disjoined, than any similar list of Annulose 

 animals ever can be. 



It is obvious also, that such a catalogue may contain vivid descriptions of such 

 animals as of themselves are interesting to mankind, while it admits of even more 

 scientific precision than the most copious of those which are founded on artificial 

 systems. The very situation of an animal in a catalogue, which is arranged correctly 

 according to natural affinities, may point out a thousand particulars, both of its economy 

 and structure, that could never have been arrived at by the most elaborate description. 



The sole disadvantage attending this sort of catalogue is, that it ceases to be a dic- 

 tionary of nomenclature, to which a perfect tyro in entomology may, with certainty, 

 resort for the name of any insect he has collected. And, undoubtedly, if a person be 

 unacquainted with the Linnean genera of insects, I fear that he will not be able to 

 make much use of the following observations ; but if, on the other hand, he should 

 know these genera, he can, in my opinion, have little difficulty in comprehending 

 every thing here stated. 



I am not aware that any local descriptive catalogue of insects has ever yet been at- 

 tempted, with reference to the discovery of a natural arrangement, unless, perhaps, it 

 be the admirable Monographia apum Anglice ; but even the plan of this work had only 

 reference to a few Hymenoptera, and consequently, was inapplicable to other insects, and 

 much more so to all other animals. The reader will, therefore, take into consideration 

 the difficulties I encounter- in commencing a catalogue of insects, on a plan of investi- 

 gating 



