NOTES ON ACULEATE HYMENOPTERA. 95 



of Formica nigra, which hung like a cloud over the cliffs to 

 the east of the town; thousands upon thousands of these 

 were floating on the sea ; in some places, in dark masses, 

 four or five yards in length and breadth, whilst a marginal 

 line, of dead and dying individuals, extended nearly a mile 

 along the shore. 



A record of the unusual scarcity or abundance of the 

 insect tribe appears to form a legitimate and necessary part 

 of an annual record; the capture of species of great interest 

 or rarity will, to the philosophical student, appear of se- 

 condary interest ; and doubtless my coadjutors in the pro- 

 duction of the Entomologist's Annual, will have to record 

 the reverse of the picture which I have endeavoured to 

 pourtray ; for I believe it always happens, or rather it is an 

 undeviating law, that a season unproductive of one portion 

 of insect life, is adapted to the production of another, in 

 unusual abundance. It only remains to be remarked, that 

 the observation of an individval, in a limited area, may not 

 admit of general application, and observers in other dis- 

 tricts will perhaps have to make known an abundance and 

 a success, the reverse of my own experience. 



It is one of the disadvantages under which the Hymenop- 

 tcrist labours in this country, that the number of students are 

 so limited ; this seems truly surprising, since it must be ad- 

 mitted, that the most generally attractive and the most re- 

 markable records in the history of insect life are to be found 

 in the works of Reaumur, the Hubers, Latreille and Kirby 

 and Spence, upon the order Hymenoptera. The small 

 number of Hymenopterists also operates greatly against the 

 chance of his acquiring novelties from working collectors, 

 who visit remote or little frequented parts of the country. 

 Not a season passes in which, through the exertions of these 

 men, the Coleopterist and Lepidopterist do not add species 

 new to the English Fauna, and not unfrequently species even 



