( 1 ) 



attention to the fact that the insect-fauna of our own islands is 

 yet by no means fully worked out. Much has never yet been 

 touched in more than a preliminary manner, much yet needs 

 revision. We have recently had an announcement of a hundred 

 new British species of Diptera, and the writer of that article 

 assured me that he believed he could, with a little more investi- 

 gation, have raised the number to two hundred, from the 

 materials in his own collection. But to work out any group of 

 British insects properly, a knowledge is necessary of the insect- 

 fauna of Europe as a whole, and even of that of the Palaearctic 

 region, so far as concerns the particular group. It has been 

 said that already there are Jive "quarters" of the globe; I think 

 our entomologists sometimes unwittingly acknowledge a sixth 

 " quarter." I have on several occasions remarked, in our Trans- 

 actions, and elsewhere, a distinction drawn between "British" 

 and "European" insects. Such a distinction of course results 

 from a casual lapsus, but its occurrence must occasion con- 

 siderable amusement when viewed from across the Channel. 



But do not for a moment imagine that I am disposed to look 

 down upon that large class of our entomologists who from choice, 

 or necessity, attend only to the productions of our own islands. 

 Possibly there is no other portion of the globe of similar extent 

 whose insect-fauna has been worked out in so exhaustive a 

 manner ; and I should say certainly there is no other portion in 

 which so much has been done, and is being done, to work out 

 the life- histories of the insect-productions, to the advantage of 

 entomological science generally ; though unfortunately this is 

 too much restricted to the one order Lepidoptera. 



I might have said, earlier, that it is almost necessary, in any 

 case advantageous to an intending systematist, to have had a 

 training in the entomology of his own country or district, and 

 especially where that country or district possesses varied physical 

 features. I will go so far as to say that it would have been an 

 advantage to some amongst us who occupy themselves more par- 

 ticularly with exotic insects. They would have been better able 

 to reason on the extent to which a species may vary, either locally 

 or accidentally (I hope I may be pardoned for using the latter 

 unscientific word). Many of our collectors of British Lepidoptera, 

 finding difficulty in adding new native species to their collections, 

 and having their own reasons for not wishing to enlarge their 



