VI 
PREFACE . 
Nearly all of the wood-cuts have been engraved from 
nature by the Junior Author. As the skill which she has 
attained in this art has been acquired during the progress 
of the work on this book, some of the earlier-made illustra¬ 
tions do not fairly represent her present standing as an 
engraver. But it does not seem worth while to delay the 
appearance of the book in order to re-engrave these figures; 
especially as it is believed that they will not be found lack¬ 
ing in scientific accuracy. The generous appreciation which 
the best engravers have shown towards the greater part of 
the work leads us to hope that it will be welcomed as an 
important addition to entomological illustrations. 
Although the chief work of the Junior Author has been 
with the pencil and graver, many parts of the text are from 
her pen. But in justice to her it should be said that the 
plan of the book was changed after she had finished her 
writing. It was intended at first to make the book of a 
much more elementary nature than it is in its final form. 
It has seemed best, however, to leave these parts as written 
in order that the work may be of interest to a wider range 
of readers than it would be were it restricted to a uniform 
style of treatment. 
The figures illustrating the venation of the wings of in¬ 
sects have been drawn with great care under the writer’s 
direction by Mr. E. P. Felt and Mr. R. H. Pettit. About 
one half of those in the chapter on Lepidoptera were drawn 
by Mr. Felt; the others in this chapter and those in the 
chapters on Diptera and Hymenoptera were drawn by Mr. 
Pettit. 
I wish also to acknowledge the help of my Assistant Mr. 
A. D. MacGillivray, to whom I am indebted for much aid in 
bibliographical researches and in many other ways; also* 
that of Dr. A. C. White of the Cornell University Library, 
who has generously given much time to determining the 
etymologies of many of the more obscure words the pro¬ 
nunciations of which are indicated in the text. 
