TO ZOOLOGISTS. 
At the request of my friend Dr. Smith, I have undertaken to lay before the 
public such Annulose forms collected by him in South Africa, as appear to be 
most worthy of notice. It may be well that I should mention here my having 
lately acquired, by purchase, the very extensive collection of Annnlosa made 
by M. Yerreaux during his long residence at the Cape, and also his manu- 
script notes on the species collected. Perhaps therefore no naturalist is 
better provided than I am with those materials which are necessary to enable 
us to form accurate notions of South African entomology. Upon this subject 
also, my personal acquaintance with the habits of many exotic genera, may 
to a certain degree be brought to bear. 
In his descriptions of the vertebrated animals of the Cape, Dr. Smith has 
adopted a plan of publication, which is at once convenient for himself and 
for his readers. The subjects which he brings under the notice of natu- 
ralists, are by reason of their size and importance in the economy of 
nature sufficiently interesting to entitle each species to a distinct plate and 
a long description. He can, therefore, publish each animal in the order 
that best suits his convenience, reserving for the conclusion his general 
arrangement, when his readers can either adopt it or bind up the work 
according to that system which may most please their fancy. I need 
scarcely say that the expense which would inevitably result from the 
adoption of any such mode of publication in the description of insects, 
renders it impossible for me to follow Dr. Smith’s example. A whole 
plate devoted to a single species of annulose animal, would be obviously 
inconvenient for all parties, and to none more than to the purchasers of 
this work. It becomes therefore necessary to place several figures in 
one plate ; the only valid objection to which plan is the difficulty of 
finally arranging the plates according to system, since each of them must 
necessarily contain figures of species that belong to very different groupes. 
This evil, however, I shall endeavour to avoid, by describing as far as 
B 
