years ago, during my last commission abroad in H.M.S. 

 " Kingarooma," it was my good fortune to spend more than a 

 year in New Zealand waters; to make the acquaintance of 

 many able and enthusiastic entomologists in the Dominion ; 

 to consult most of the principal collections of New Zealand 

 insects in the Museums and in private hands ; and to carry 

 away with me some of the most pleasant memories of my 

 life, gained in acquiring first-hand experience of these insects 

 in the field. Secondly, this experience has enabled me fully 

 to realise the extreme interest and importance of the entire 

 New Zealand fauna, and the fascinating field of research and 

 speculation as to its origin and affinities, which it presents to 

 the student of the geographical distribution of animal life. 

 On some of these problems I propose to touch, however 

 lightly, in the course of this Address, which in addition may 

 have some little value as a summary of our knowledge of the 

 Entomology of New Zealand, brought up as nearly as possible 

 to the present date. 



It has become a common custom to speak of New Zealand 

 as the " Britain of the South," but it would be difficult to 

 find two regions, nearly equal in area and both in the Tem- 

 perate Zone, more utterly diverse in physical and faunistic 

 conditions. The British Islands are essentially a part of the 

 great Euro-Asiatic continent, from which they were separated 

 as it were yesterday in geological time ; and their insect fauna 

 is but a greatly reduced edition of that of Europe, and includes 

 only a very limited number of species which may be regarded 

 as peculiar. New Zealand, on the contrary, has almost 

 certainly not been directly connected with any of the great 

 land-masses since the commencement of the Tertiary period 

 at latest, and it possesses in consequence the most isolated 

 and precinctive fauna of any region in the whole world. From 

 Australia, the nearest land which may be regarded as a con- 

 tinent, the islands are separated by the Tasman Sea, an extent 

 of more than a thousand miles of storm-swept and profoundly 

 deep ocean, and the coast of South America is at least four 

 times as far away across the Pacific. Southwards, a vast 

 expanse of deep ocean, broken only by one or two groups of 

 small islands, extends to the eternal ice of the Antarctic 



