PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. XC1X. 



The well-known habit of Cnethocampa processioned and some 

 allied moths, whose larvae march out to feed in long columns, 

 hardly comes within our subject, though the gregarious method 

 suggests some connection with a regular migration. 



COLEOPTERA. 



With regard to the migration of beetles, I may refer in the 

 first place to the moving of water beetles from one pond to 

 another, and I cannot help thinking, from what I saw last 

 September, that considerable numbers occasionally migrate 

 together, as with the water-boatmen. However, that is some- 

 thing to look out for in the future. Darwin records the 

 occurrence of numbers of living beetles, of both aquatic and 

 land species, at a distance of 1 7 miles from the South American 

 coast, and there are other records showing that beetles which 

 usually live in fresh water can exist in salt. There are records 

 of beetles, as of many other insects, at considerable distances 

 from the land, but the subject of their migrations may occa- 

 sionally become involved, owing to the fact that after a flood 

 immense numbers of beetles are sometimes met with on the 

 banks of the river, and some of the records of great numbers 

 found together appear to be possibly due to other causes than 

 migration ; such as one where the seashore below the cliff near 

 Ramsgate was covered with multitudes of beetles of many 

 different species, apparently blown over the top of the cliff. 



Another class consists of records of large numbers of beetles 

 on the tops of mountains, where they are supposed to have been 

 brought by air currents, but this explanation seems hardly 

 sufficient. 



Vast numbers of cockchafers have appeared at times and 

 rivalled, in the banks formed by their dead bodies, those of the 

 dead locusts already referred to. In Kent and Sussex migrations 

 of lady birds have been observed, and in South America large 



