Excerpt from Fauna Hawaiiensis, or the Zoology of the Sandwich (Hawaiian) Isles, Vol. 1: Part III., Hymenoptera Parasitica, Pages 277-364; Plates VII and IX, Uncoloured The Hawaiian Islands, on account of their volcanic origin and isolation from the continents of Asia and America, have a most interesting, and, in some respects, peculiar fauna which is well worth the closest study, although their early settlement, their close commercial relationship with various nationalities and the introduction of many plants and animals, not indigenous, render a study of the endemic species obscure and most difficult. This difficulty is enhanced among the smaller insects easily transportable, especially among those of parasitic habits, and more particularly among species belonging to the orders Diptera and Hymenoptera, groups still very imperfectly known in temperate zones and almost totally neglected in tropical regions, but which have a wide geographical distribution. It becomes of the greatest importance, therefore, to see that larger and more thorough zoological and botanical collections of the endemic species of these Islands be made before further inroads of modern civilization utterly destroy the indigenous species. Our own government' and the authorities of the U. S. National Museum have been singularly remiss in their duty in this respect, and have left the exploration of these Islands, now a body politic of the United States, to others. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.