22 NOTES ON BRITISH TRICHOPTERA, 



exists a rich but iinworked mine of information and new 

 species is patent from the success ah'eady met \yith. 



A still more encouraging; sign arises from the fact that 

 there are now several English Entomologists who have 

 turned their attention not only to collecting, but to the 

 study of these interesting creatures. That there are diffi- 

 culties to contend with, there can be no doubt. The absence 

 of striking colours, the generally hyaline appearance of 

 many species, and the existence of specific characters not 

 often apparent on first sight, the due appreciation of which 

 requires the eye to be educated to them, render a considerable 

 amount of care and discrimination absolutely necessary. But, 

 after all, it is the same with any undertaking : that which 

 at a distance seems an obstacle almost insurmountable, 

 becomes on closer acquaintance comparatively easy. 



The past season has been marked by an unusual scarcity 

 of insect life in almost all orders. The wet summer — or 

 rather no summer at all — of last year, combined M'ith the 

 almost unprecedented cold of the winter, destroyed a vast 

 number of larvge and pupte. But this scarcity, as far as I 

 can see, has not been shared by the Phryganidce. An excess 

 of moisture can hardly be prejudicial to insects which in 

 their preliminary states are aquatic; and, on the other hand, 

 while terrestrial insects were congealed beyond recovery by 

 the intense frost, the caddis worms in their ice-bound habi- 

 tations were unaffected by external influences. 



It is a matter deeply to be regretted that so little has yet 

 been done in what is truly the natural history of insects in 

 this order; and that after a lapse of twenty-seven years, 

 Pictet's work should still be the only one that gives any 

 amount of information on this point. But there are diffi- 

 culties in the way not met with in other orders. The larvae 

 or pupae must be placed in water immediately on being 



