PREFACE. IX 



Bonnet, Lyonet, the Hubers, &c, as well as their 

 own individual observations, relative to the noxious 

 and beneficial properties of insects; their affection 

 for their young ; their food, and modes of obtain- 

 ing- it ; their habitations ; societies ; &c. &c. : and 

 they were the more induced to adopt this plan, 

 from the consideration, that, though many of the 

 most striking of these facts have before been pre- 

 sented to the English reader, a great proportion 

 are unknown to him ; and that no similar gene- 

 ralization (if a slight attempt towards it in Smel- 

 lie's Philosophy of Natural History, and a confes- 

 sedly imperfect one in Latreille's Histoire Natu- 

 relle des Crustaces el des Insectes be excepted) 

 has ever been attempted in any language. — Thus 

 the entire work would be strictly on the plan of the 

 Philosophia Entomologica of Fabricius, only giv- 

 ing a much greater extent to the (Economia and 

 Usus } and adverting to these in the first place in- 

 stead of in the last. 



The epistolary form was adopted, not certainly 

 from any idea of their style being particularly 

 suited to a mode of writing so difficult to keep 

 from running into incongruities ; but simply be- 

 cause this form admitted of digressions and allu- 

 sions called for in a popular work, but which 

 might have seemed misplaced in a stricter kin4 

 of composition ;-— because it is better suited to 



