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IV. On the dispersal of non-migratory Insects by atmos- 
pheric agencies. By Atsurt Miner, F.R.G.S., &c. 
[Read 20th February, 1871.] 
Ir any of my friends, who may do me the honour of 
perusing this paper, should feel tempted to say that it 
appears “like a wild flower, where it was least expected,” 
I would tell them, that the subject of Insect diffusion has 
long had a share of my limited leisure, but that I would 
not yet have ventured upon publishing my reflections, 
had I not been reminded by the annual address (1870) of 
our late president Mr. H. W. Bates, that it is probable 
the amount of migration and dissemination by winds, 
currents, and other means, is much underrated by some 
Entomologists. 
It is not within the scope of my theme to consider the 
great number of instances which literature records of 
migratory insects.* They are mostly prompted to un- 
dertake their wanderings by instinct, climatic or meteoro- 
logical influences, scarcity of food, and probably other 
causes at present unknown to us; and we are all more or 
less familiar with the accounts given of the travelling 
Lepidoptera, viz.: the larve of several Pieride, of Gastro- 
pacha processionea and pinivora, and of Leucanide (army- 
worms), the imagines of V. cardui, urtice, of several 
Papilionide, Pieride, Uranide, Sphingide, the ‘ Bugong’ 
moths, &c.; among Coleoptera, several Hydradephaga, 
Melolonthide, Lucanide, Coccinellidee, Apion vernale, &c. ; 
amongst Hymenoptera, Formicide, and Apide; in the 
Neuroptera (in the Linnean sense), Libellulide, Termi- 
tide ; in Orthoptera, Blattide, Locustide, Acridiide, &c. ; 
in the Diptera, the larve of several Sciaride (‘Heerwurm’); 
the imagines of a Bibio, and sundry Syrphide ; whilst 
the hosts of Aphide, and a few species belonging to 
Notonecta and Aphrophora may be taken as representing 
the erratic Hemiptera. 
All these Insects are, so to say, travellers by choice or 
profession, and very little surprise need greet their ap- 
pearance, isolated or en masse, in any part of the globe. 
But it is very different with the normally more or less 
* A general survey of the subject has been given by C. Cornelius, in his 
work “Zug und Wanderthiere aller Thierklassen,” Berlin, 1865. 
TRANS. ENT. soc. 1871.—PartT U. (MAY.) 
