INTRODUCTION. 
Xlll 
man of the country town; the hardy husbandman in 
his neat cottage; the mechanic whose head and hand 
are busy; the gallant naval or military officer, the de¬ 
fender of the land ; many of England’s fairest daughters, 
and many of her heartiest sons. These, be sure, will 
ever continue to keep what they have already preserved 
so long. 
I have avoided very minute descriptions of the insects, 
being convinced that they often bewilder instead of 
being good guides ; for such are the almost endless vari¬ 
eties of the various specimens themselves, that if they 
be attended to in the account of one they will not 
apply to another of the same kind, nay not even to 
another of the same brood. My object has not been to 
fill space, but to make things plain; u ut multum nil 
moror”—“brevis esse laboro”—I have aimed at concise¬ 
ness, and avoided prolixity. But I have used no 
abbreviations, as I think it is perfectly clear that what 
those who are fond of them profess to save in the way of 
space, is, for the most part, far more than lost in the 
trouble caused by actual or mental search and research 
to ascertain or remember their meaning. Also, I have, 
for the most part, taken no notice of the fact of an 
insect having been more plentiful at any place at one 
season or time than another,inasmuch as every Entomolo¬ 
gist knows that such discrepancies are most easily to be 
accounted for, and that the continuance of the relative 
abundance or scarcity of the species is not to be looked 
for or depended on, in consequence of diversity of season, 
the alteration of the suitableness or unsuitableness of a 
locality by agricultural improvement or otherwise, and 
the difference in the way it is explored, either by a 
greater number of insect-hunters, or by their greater 
assiduity and attention, more close investigation, or more 
