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British Bees / An Introduction into the Studies of the Natural History and Economy of the Bees Indigenous to the British Isles cover

British Bees / An Introduction into the Studies of the Natural History and Economy of the Bees Indigenous to the British Isles

Chapter 2: PREFACE.
By William Edward Shuckard
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About This Book

A comprehensive natural-history manual surveys the bees native to the British Isles, opening with their ecological roles and a practical division between social and solitary species. It follows insect development from egg through larva, pupa, and imago, outlines geographic distribution, and sketches prominent foreign genera for comparison. Sections cover parasites and predators, principles of scientific classification, and methods for cultivating bees, then present an arrangement of families and genera with identification tables and facile keys. Detailed genus accounts list native species, describe habits and economy, and are supplemented by plates and practical notes for collectors and naturalists.

PREFACE.

A few words are necessary explanatory of the course pursued in the following work, as regards the citation of authorities.

All the facts recorded without reference to authorities, are the result either of personal observation or of diligent study, which, from the length of time that has intervened, have become so blended in my mind that I can no longer separate their sources. I may, however, state that observation has, certainly, as often anticipated the perusal of the discoveries of others, as their record has stimulated direct observation to confirm them.

The habits of animals, in which instinct is the sole prompter, are so uniform, that these, once well observed, may be considered as permanently established. The slight deviations that have been occasionally noticed, although temporarily infringing, do not abrogate the inflexibility of the law which regulates this faculty; and the descendants inevitably resume the economy of the ancestor.

The merit that attaches to the discovery of such facts is due merely to patience and diligence, very common attributes; and the repeated mention of the supposed first observer must, necessarily, in a work of this kind, which is far from being of a strictly scientific character, diminish the interest of the narrative by interrupting its connection, and thus making it an incongruous mosaic. The omission to cite authorities may also take place without any wish to detract from the merit of the discoverer, which is patent to all by his own record in the archives of science.

Before concluding, I wish to express my best thanks to Thomas Desvignes, Esq., for the kindness and willingness with which he lent me, for the purposes of this work, my own selection from the Bees of his choice collection of British insects.

I now dismiss the book—truly a labour of love—with the hope that it will fall into the possession of many, who may be sufficiently interested in the subject to induce them to become ardent entomologists, by showing them within how small a compass much agreeable instruction lies.

June, 1866.