18!i-.] 27] 



Norfolk, Herefordshire, Leicestershire, Lancashire, Cheshire, and 

 Yorkshire ; with considerable lists for portions of Kent, Surrey, 

 Sussex, Berks, Middlesex, Wilts, Somerset, Oxfordshire, Hertfordshire, 

 Huntingdon, Northamptonshire, Essex, Lincolnshire, Warwickshire, 

 Worcestershire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Cumberland, Northumber- 

 land, and Durham ; but very many of these are confined to the 

 Macro- Lepidopt era, and some of them are for very restricted districts. 



In all Wales I cannot find a single collected county list ! 



Scotland has been worked out in districts more than in counties: 

 the most complete lists are for Eosburghshire, the Edinburgh district 

 with Midlothian generally, the Clyde Valley, Perthshire, the Dee 

 district, and some few of the Isles in each group. In Ireland a good 

 deal of work has been done, uiore especially in the coast counties, but 

 the lists separately published are mainly for very restricted areas 

 rather than for counties, and here, as in Wales and Scotland, large 

 fields of work are still open. 



A friendly critic may, and sometimes does, say that a list of 

 species occurring in a certain restricted area, having purely arbitrary 

 limits, is not of especial scientific value ; and he may point to the 

 large extent of Yorkshire or Devonshire, and enquire whether a 

 catalogue of the insects of Eutland will be of equal value, or why, 

 for comparison with other counties, we do not call for a separate list 

 for each Riding of Yorkshire ? and queries such as these are always 

 more or less effective, especially in the direction of hindering work ; 

 but apart from the special personal interest felt by the natives of each 

 county in its productions, it is not possible fully to w^ork out the 

 geographical range of every species, except from information affecting 

 well known and recognisable areas. 



I am tempted, however, in this connection to draw attention to 

 work of a nature which has not as yet been in any complete degree 

 carried out. Take, for instance, the county w^ithin which I am at 

 this moment writing, Surrey. The soil under my feet is London clay — 

 and a very tenacious clay it is here at any rate. This London clay 

 occupies the northern portion of the county nearly to Croydon, 

 Leatherhead, Kingston, Hipley, and Farnham ; it is not all heavy, and 

 there is a good deal of sand included with it. Beyond is a strip of 

 chalk— Purley, Croydon, Caterham, Dorking, to Guildford ; beyond 

 this a strip of greensand (upper and lower) and gault — Reigate, 

 Godalming, Haslemere, and thence southward ; while the rest of the 

 south of the county is wealden and allied strata. All these formations 

 produce numerous species of Lepidoptera, the majority of course 



