AN
INTRODUCTION
TO
ENTOMOLOGY:
OR
ELEMENTS
OF THE
NATURAL HISTORY OF INSECTS:
WITH PLATES.
By WILLIAM KIRBY, M.A. F.R. AND L.S.
RECTOR OF BARHAM,
AND
WILLIAM SPENCE, Esq. F.L.S.
IN FOUR VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
FIFTH EDITION.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR
LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, AND GREEN,
PATERNOSTER ROW.
1828.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY RICHARD TAYLOR,
RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET.
TO
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
Sir JOSEPH BANKS, Baronet,
ONE OF HIS MAJESTY'S MOST HONOURABLE PRIVY
COUNCIL,
KNIGHT GRAND CROSS OF THE ORDER OF THE BATH,
PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY, ETC.
WHOSE UNRIVALLED LIBRARY AND
PERSONAL COMMUNICATIONS
HAVE FURNISHED MUCH OF THE MOST INTERESTING
MATTER THAT IT CONTAINS,
THE FOLLOWING WORK,
IN WHICH AN ATTEMPT IS MADE TO COPY
HIS ILLUSTRIOUS EXAMPLE,
BY POINTING OUT THE CONNEXION THAT EXISTS
BETWEEN NATURAL SCIENCE, AND AGRICULTURE,
AND THE ARTS,
IS, WITH HIS PERMISSION,
MOST GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED
BY HIS MOST OBLIGED
AND OBEDIENT SERVANTS,
THE AUTHORS.
ADVERTISEMENT
TO THIS EDITION.
Since the original Edition of the present workwas published, a gradual and great alteration hastaken place in the nomenclature of the genera,occasioned by the old ones being further subdividedaccording to their natural groups, and eachdistinguished as a genus or subgenus by its peculiarname. These names in the present Edition,in order to keep pace with the progress of thescience, have been generally adopted, and somenew ones introduced. The improved Index, whichmay be had separately by the purchasers of theformer Editions, will point out from what old generathe new ones have been separated.
PREFACE.
One principal cause of the little attention paidto Entomology in this country, has doubtless beenthe ridicule so often thrown upon the science.The botanist, sheltered now by the sanction offashion, as formerly by the prescriptive union ofhis study with medicine, may dedicate his hoursto mosses and lichens without reproach; but inthe minds of most men, the learned as well asthe vulgar, the idea of the trifling nature of hispursuit is so strongly associated with that of thediminutive size of its objects, that an entomologistis synonymous with every thing fu