with Descriptions of several Hymendptera, 117 



insects, as well such as have four as such as have but two 

 wings, of both which kinds there are many subordinate genera) 

 will be found in multitude of species to equal, if not exceed, 

 both the forementioned kinds. The creeping insects that 

 never come to be winged, though for number they may fall 

 short of the flying or winged, yet are they also very nume- 

 rous ; as, by running over the several kinds, I could easily 

 demonstrate. Supposing, then, there be a thousand several 

 sorts of insects in this island and the sea near it, if the same 

 proportion holds between the insects native of England and 

 those of the rest of the world as doth between plants domestic 

 and exotic (that is, as I guess, near decuple), the species of 

 insects in the whole earth (land and water) will amount to 

 10,000: and I do believe they rather exceed than fall short 

 of this sum." Subsequently, however, in consequence of 

 having discovered a greater number of English moths and 

 butterflies, he was induced to consider that the total number 

 of British insects might be about 2000 ; and those of the 

 whole earth 20,000. 



Linnaeus, in the 1761 edition of the Fauna Suecia?, de- 

 scribed 1 700 species of insects, inhabitants of Sweden * ; and, 

 in the 12th edition of the Sy sterna Naturce, the whole number 

 of these animals (Swedish and exotic) with which he had 

 become acquainted amounted to about 3000. 



Let us now look at the state of the science of entomology 

 in the present day. 



Mr. Stephens has given us a Catalogue of named British 

 insects, amounting to 10,000; and, since the time of its pub- 

 lication, numerous additions have been made to the list. It 

 was a curious coincidence, that our poet of nature, Thomson, 

 should have hit upon this very number, in order to give some 

 idea of the vast profusion of summer insects : and Mr. Ste- 

 phens has happily adopted the lines printed below in italics as 

 his motto : — 



" By myriads, forth at once, 

 Swarming they pour; of all the varied hues 

 Their beauty-beaming parent can disclose. 

 Ten thousand forms ! ten thousand different tribes 

 People the blaze" 



Mr. MacLeay, whose general knowledge of the extent of 

 modern collections cannot be questioned, stated, in the second 

 part of his Horce Entomological (p. 469.), published in 1821, 

 that there were certainly more than 100,000 of the annulose 



* This was in his day considered so remarkable a fact, as to induce 

 Reaumur to assert that Sweden was richer in the number of its insects 

 than any ether country in the world. 



I 3 



