PRE FACE. 



vii 



presented itself, and merely given a translation of 

 one of the many Introductions to Entomology ex- 

 tant in Latin, German, and Frencli, adding only a 

 few obvious improvements, their task would have 

 been very easy ; but the slightest examination showed 

 that, in thus proceeding, they would have stopped 

 far short of the goal which they were desirous of 

 reaching. In the technical department of the science 

 they found much confusion, and numerous errors 

 and imperfections ; the same name sometimes ap- 

 plied to parts anatomically quite different, and dif- 

 ferent names to parts essentially the same, while 

 others of primary importance were without any name 

 at all. And with reference to the anatomy and phy- 

 siology of insects, they could no where meet with a 

 full and accurate generalisation of the various facts 

 connected with these subjects, scattered here and 

 there in the pages of the authors who have studied 

 them. 



They therefore resolved to begin, in some mea- 

 sure, de oiovOi to institute a rigorous revision of the 

 terms employed, making such additions and im- 

 provements as might seem to be called for ; and to 

 attempt a more complete and collected account of 

 the existing discoveries respecting the anatomical 

 and physiological departments of the science than 

 has yet been given to the world ; — and to these two 

 points their plan at the outset was limited. 



It soon, however, occurred to them, that it would 

 be of little use to write a book which no one would 

 peruse ; and that, in the present age of love for light 

 reading, there could not be much hope of leading 

 students to the dry abstractions of the science, un- 

 less they were conducted through the attractive 



A 4 



