40 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 



easy compared with numbering these little creatures. If the task 

 were attempted, the ordinary units of our decimal notation would 

 be found useless, and our only hope would be to adopt some vast 

 measure like the "light-years" of the astronomer. . But if we can- 

 not e\"en guess at the number of individuals in these lower forms 

 of life, we may at least form some rough estimate of the relative 

 abundance of the various orders and like divisions. 



But here again there are likely to be decided differences of 

 opinion. There is such a tremendous flow and ebb in the tide of 

 "insect" life — using the term in its wide, popular significance — 

 that it is not easy to infer which kind is really in the majority. 

 Speaking of conditions in this country, the student of pond-life 

 must be persuaded that at certain times of year there are more 

 Daphnia and Cyclops and other minute crustaceans in his pools 

 than any other form of Arthropoda in the district. Again some- 

 times lepidopterous larvae, such as the tent-caterpillar and the 

 army-worm, seem to outnumber all other insects. May-flies and 

 grasshoppers also appear on occasion in immense numbers. The 

 minute springtail, too, must not be forgotten, for certain species 

 of this family sometimes emerge in winter in such abundance as to 

 blacken the snow over considerable areas. Mosquitoes are quite 

 as plentiful as anyone could desire, but we are perhaps apt to over- 

 estimate their importance in the numerical scale on account of 

 their obtrusive manners which force them unduly on our attention, 

 and the same is true of the house-fly. But I was long convinced 

 that ants must hold the record for numbers of individuals, for any- 

 one who has collected them must have been struck by their wide 

 distribution and their great abundance. They are to be found 

 simply e\erywhere: in dense woods, mossy swamps, dry, open 

 fields, rocky hills, and hot, sandy beaches. The sacred dwelling 

 of man himself is seldom exempt. One or other species of the 

 Formicidse adapts itself to these most varied habitats, and flourishes 

 in all. 



However, I recently changed my opinion on this point. In the 

 course of a forty-mile drive on the first of October last through 

 parts of the counties of Renfrew, Lanark and Carleton in Ontario, 

 I was fairly astounded at the evidence of the numbers of spiders 

 there must be in the country. Our road lay mostly through culti- 



