33 



equally or more competent men shall study the then faunal 

 conditions; and these may then be able, by comparison, to 

 measure the influence of civilization thereon. 



Ohio has had neither a Bates or a Wallace, and per- 

 sistant collecting in any part of the state has been carried on 

 only within the last twenty five, or at most, thirty years, 

 and in but two or three localities. So far as the writer is 

 aware. Dr. Kellicott's list of the Dragon Flies of Ohio is the 

 first attempt ever made to list the insects of any particular 

 group inhabiting the entire slate; and, in order to get any 

 conception of the insect fauna, we have to consult the col- 

 lections and lists of Mr. Charles Dury, of Cincinnati; Dr. 

 John Hamilton, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, Messrs. Hub- 

 bard and Schwarz, published while at Detroit, Michigan; 

 Messrs, Reinecke and Zesch, of Buffalo, N. Y., of the late 

 V. T. Chambers, of Covington, Ky, ; A. R. Grote, formerly of 

 Buffalo, N. Y., and Mr. Pilate, formerly of Dayton, Ohio. 

 A still more recent, but incomplete list, including species of 

 Coleoptera collected in Columbiana county, Ohio, by 

 Messrs. W. M, Hill and J. H. Bomberger, may be found in 

 the Second Report of the Ohio Academy of Science, For 

 one who wishes to get an exact knowledge of the insect 

 fauna, as it coexisted with the Indian, buffalo, bear, wolf 

 and deer, there is little comfort in all that is now to be 

 learned, as over a century of occupation of the country, by 

 the white man, has banished the Indian, the animals men- 

 tioned, and, in all probability, a greater or less number of 

 species of insects have suffered a similar fate. We can now 

 only study the efforts of natural selection to keep pace with 

 artificial selection, and establish a basis for future studies of 

 geographical distribution. 



One has but to observe, i:arefully, in any locality, during 

 a long series of years, to note ( i ) the ordinary rise and fall, 

 in point of numbers, among some species, being abunckmt 

 during some years and then, possibly for a series of years, 



