( lxxiv ) 



representing about 500 species collected in a single season in 

 the environs of Ins residence at Greymouth, so that it would 

 appear that beetles are as numerous in individuals and in 

 species in New Zealand as they are in Europe. 



It has also been thought that the scattered islands of the 

 world have very little entomological fauna ; that there is 

 some truth in this idea is more than probable, but the recent 

 researches of Wollaston in St. Helena, and of Blackburn in 

 the Sandwich Islands, have shown that these islands have a 

 considerable population of native insects, and that their com- 

 parative poverty is possibly largely due to recent extinction. 



If such results have been obtained by a few skilful collectors 

 in the localities they have explored, we may reasonably assume 

 the same facts to hold good elsewhere. And there are still 

 parts of the world where there exists an astonishing profusion 

 of insect-life, of which we know very little indeed. On con- 

 sidering such facts there is, gentlemen, only one conclusion 

 we can come to — our collections are lamentably incomplete. 

 The species represented in them are certainly not one-fourth, 

 probably not one-tenth of those existing in the world. It 

 must, too, not be forgotten that the species we have obtained 

 consist in a large degree of those that are most easily 

 acquired : the forms that are first picked up in any locality 

 naturally consist to a very large extent of the species that are 

 most abundant ; but afterwards discrimination as well as 

 mere collection is required, and the task of collecting insects 

 that are new or of real value is constantly becoming more 

 arduous, and must continue to do so. The order Diptera is 

 probably excessively numerous, but as the preservation of so 

 many of the two-winged flies is a matter of much difficulty, 

 extremely little has been accomplished in the way of obtaining 

 a knowledge of the forms inhabiting the tropics. 



It is evident, then, that we cannot relax our efforts; indeed 

 the necessity for energy becomes still more evident when we 

 consider the present position of affairs on the surface of the 

 earth. The development of the means of locomotion by steam 

 is perhaps the most practically important of the changes of 

 the present century, and is undoubtedly creating a great 

 alteration in the population of the surface of our globe. The 

 European race is now establishing itself in many and distant 



