8o THE COMING OF AGE OF 



amount of work to be done with respect to our Insect Fauna. 

 Mr. Fitch's "admirable paper on the " Galls of Essex" read in 

 1 88 1 (Trans. II., gS), and supplemented in 1887 by a paper on 

 two new Essex gall-makers (Essex Naturalist, I., 177) fur- 

 nishes us with an excellent example of a monograph on a most 

 interesting group of insects, and when Mr. E. J. Lewis's paper 

 on the " Oak Galls and Gall Insects of Epping Forest " (Essex 

 Naturalist, XII,, 41) is published we may congratulate our- 

 selves on having been the means of giving to naturalists a very 

 substantial body of authentic observations. The Lepidoptera, 

 always a favourite order with collectors, have formed the subject 

 of several communications of which the first was Mr. Gilbert 

 Raynor's paper in 1882 on " The Macro-Lepidoptera of the 

 District around Maldon " (Trans. III., 30). In i88g the late 

 Mr. Howard Vaughan gave us his " Notes on the Lepidoptera 

 of Leigh and its neighbourhood " (Essex Naturalist, III., 123). 

 No general list of the Lepidoptera of the County has as yet been 

 compiled, although the first instalment, the list of butterflies, was 

 prepared and published by Mr. Fitch in 1890 (Essex Natural- 

 ist, v., 74) and in the same year I published a list of the species 

 taken at Leyton and in the neighbourhood (Ibid., 153 and 

 supplementary records, VIII., 128), The materials for a com- 

 plete list are in existence, and it is to be hoped that Mr. Fitch 

 will be induced to complete the work which he has commenced 

 so well. A preliminary list of the Arachnida of Epping Forest 

 was contributed in 1883 by the Rev. O. Pickard-Cambridge 

 (Trans. IV., 41) and a further contribution by Mr. F. O. Pickard- 

 Cambridge in 1900 (Essex Naturalist, XL, 315). 



Natural history observations of value are incorporated with 

 much of the faunistic work above referred to. The preparation 

 of lists of species is undoubtedly an important and necessary 

 part of the work of a local society — especially during the early 

 period of its existence. No less important is the observation of 

 life-histories, habits, and the general relations between the living 

 organism and its environinent known under the comprehensive 

 designation of Bionomics. Many notes and papers on Bionomics 

 and on general natural history appear in our volumes although, 

 as might be expected, such communications are few as compared 

 with the purely faunistic papers. As coming under this heading 

 I may refer to Mr. Fitch's paper on the Bean Beetle, Bruchiis 



