iiidividniils ii> ;ill Orders of insects; iiiul in lJi(> lifi;lit of our 

 present knowledge, it is a little diflieult to realise the opinion 

 which prevailed up to quite a recent date, that New Zealand 

 possessed probably the poorest and most limited insect fauna 

 of any land of the same extent. Even as late as 1876, we 

 find so eminent an authority as Mr. A. R. Wallace writing of 

 its " excessive and most unintelligible poverty in insects," * 

 and further on in the same great work,f he is dis])osed to 

 attribute this poverty to the deficiency of the flora in gaily- 

 coloured and conspicuous flowers — a deficiency by no means 

 as great as was then generally supposed. And an excellent 

 Entomologist, the late Prof. F. W. Ilutton, writes as follows 

 in 1873 — " No New Zealand naturalist who has collected 

 insects on however small a scale in Europe can I think' fail 

 to be struck with the paucity in New Zealand, not only of 

 species, but in some Orders of individuals also. . . . On 

 entering the bush, instead of finding the masses of decaying 

 wood and lea.\cs swarming with life, we hardly find a living 

 creature, while at the same time Ave are attacked by myriads 

 of blood-thirsty mosquitos {Ciilex acer). It woukl certainly 

 seem that abundance of food does not produce abundance of 

 individuals in some Orders (e. g. Coleopfeni), neither does an 

 absolutt; dearth of food in the imago state prevent the increase 

 of individuals in others (e. g. IJiplera)." | Another good 

 observer, Mr. ('. M. Wakefield, states also at about the same 

 time — " 3000 sjiecies of Colcoptera have been found in Great 

 Britain, and although I cannot say how many New Zealand 

 species have been described, yet I do not think the number 

 can possibly exceed 500. When, therefore, we consider what 

 a diversity of climate and surface these islands present, it is 

 obvious that there is aniple scope for further investigation. 

 Not only are our species h'w in number, but the individuals 

 composing them are small and inconspicuous, and singularly 

 destitute of brilliant colouring. The same dull and sombre 

 hue so characteristic of the vegetation of New Zealand 

 extends itself, with but few exc(q)tions, to its fauna.'' § 

 The reason for this striking undcr-est imate of the richness 



* Cooji. Distribution of Animals. I, p. 450. t !<•■. PP- -l(»0-(i:). 



J Trans. N.Z. Inst., V, p. 240. § Id., V, p. 297. 



