54 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



W. F. DE ViSMES Kane. — A Catalogue of the LepidojJtera of Ireland. 

 Reprinted, with an Introduction, from the ' Entomologist.' 1901. 

 West, Newman & Co. xviii, viii, and 166 pp. ; and a coloured Plate. 



The readers of the ' Entomologist ' will already be familiar with 

 the main portion of this useful work, which has been running serially 

 for some years through the pages of the ' Entomologist,' and now re- 

 published in a complete and handy form, prefaced by a discussion upon 

 the origin of the distribution of the Irish Lepidopterous Fauna. 



From the collector's standpoint, Ireland is not offered as an attrac- 

 tive field, for not only does the climate interfere with continuous work, 

 but Lepidoptera in most districts are actually scarce. This is due to, 

 "firstly, the very large area of country with a heavy and tenacious soil, 

 which retains and becomes sodden with wet. Secondly, by the ' in- 

 sular climate,' with constant rainfall and but little frost throughout the 

 autumn, winter, and spring ; . . . while the summers are characterized 

 by the want of sunlight and heat." The absence of the great banks 

 and hedgerows of England — due to ancient and settled agriculture — 

 the absence of any great districts of primaeval forest-lands, or of fen 

 districts, &c., are other causes of this scarcity. Where the opposite 

 conditions prevail, are the most productive hunting-grounds, as also 

 the extensive bogs, and the long coast-line with sand-dunes. " In such 

 situations no disappointment will be felt by the most greedy collector." 



Ireland is held out, however, as " unrivalled in Europe in respect 

 of isolation of geological history," and it is for the purpose of eluci- 

 dating the numerous problems connected with the origins of the geo- 

 graphical distribution of the Insecta that scientific collectors are so 

 much needed in Ireland. Even in England, the only orders of whose 

 local distribution there is extended information are Lepidoptera and 

 Coleoptera ; while in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales there are huge 

 tracts entomologically unknown. In Scotland a few "show places" 

 — as, for example, Eannoch — are visited year after year for the same 

 rarities, while the lonely glens of Ross and the wild moors of the 

 Hebrides remain silent. In Ireland it is almost incredible that the 

 Lepidoptera are a " neglected order," but now that Mr. Kane has pro- 

 vided a sound Introduction, based upon many years of patient research, 

 it remains for the many enthusiastic and experienced English collectors 

 to combine an inexpensive and health-giving holiday amid magnificent 

 scenery with opportunities for entomological work of an enduring value. 



The origin of the Palsearctic Insect fauna is an extremely difficult 

 matter to discuss briefly. In the first place, the leading authorities 

 are widely divergent as to their opinions on climatic conditions at 

 certain important periods ; and, secondly, even were this not so, it is 

 very doubtful whether the methods of dispersal adopted by the Insecta 

 are at all comparable with those employed by e.y. the Mammalia. As 

 the principal arguments of writers are in general based upon their 

 studies of Vertebrates, Plants, and, to some extent, MoUusca, we may, 

 in following these authorities, be founding our speculations on an 

 erroneous basis. Students of the Vertebrata, moreover, are enormously 

 aided by fossil remains, which in the Insecta are so seldom found, and 

 when found are so rarely in sufficiently good preservation for the 

 obtaining of more than very general inferences as to their systematic 

 position, that they may safely be disregarded in detailed work. 



