LETTER XLIX. 
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF IN- 
SECTS; THEIR STATIONS AND HAUNTS; 
SEASONS; TIMES OF ACTION AND RE- 
POSE. 
1 HOUGH no subject is more worthy of the attention 
of the Entomologist than the Geographical Distribution 
of insects, yet perhaps there is none connected with the 
science, for the elucidation of which he is furnished with 
fewer materials. The geographer of these animals sit- 
ting by his fireside, even supposing his museum as amply 
stored as that of Mr. MacLeay, and the habitats of its 
contents as accurately indicated, still labours under dif- 
ficulties that are almost insuperable ; so that it is next to 
impossible, with our present knowledge of the subject, 
to give satisfactory information upon every point which 
it includes. Had he the talents and opportunities of a 
Humboldt, and could, like him, traverse a large portion 
of the globe, he would endeavour to note the elevation, 
the soil and aspect, the latitude and longitude, the mean 
temperature and meteorological phsenomena, the season 
of the year, the kind of country, and other localities con- 
nected with the insects he captured, and so might build 
his superstructure upon a sure basis. But these are 
