Zoology. 195 



ARTHROPODA. 



Insecta. 



The counties of Antrim and Down present a very diversi- 

 fied surface. Mountain, plain, lake and sea-shore, bogs and 

 cultivated lands, are all to be met with within their borders. 

 It might well be expected that such diversity would produce 

 a very large number of insects of all orders ; and such, no 

 doubt, would be the case were the whole tract thoroughly 

 examined. Unfortunately, these two counties, like so much 

 of Ireland, have not been fully investigated with reference 

 to their insect fauna. Our knowledge is consequently 

 limited — in fact, it is very limited ; for except as regards the 

 Coleoptera and Lepidoptera, exceedingly little is known of 

 the insects of Antrim and Down, while even in these two 

 orders much has yet to be learned. 



W. F. J. 



HYMF.XOPTERA. 



Such information as we possess of the Hymenopterous 

 fauna of the districts round ]5elfast is almost entirely 

 due to the researches of the eminent entomologist, the 

 late A. H. Haliday. No one seems to have paid much 

 attention to this interesting group of insects in recent years, 

 so that the subject — so far as it concerns the counties of 

 Antrim and Down — remains practically as Haliday left it 

 some fifty years ago. The elaborate papers which he pub- 

 lished on the parasitic sections of the Hymenoptera^-are 

 still indispensable works of reference to students of these 

 obscure groups. Amongst the higher aculeate sections, 

 however, the records are extremely scanty, and the remarks 

 in connection with the Haliday collection of Hemiptera 

 apply equally to the present order. The following short 

 list contains practically all of the species for which definite 

 local records are available. At least four of these (marked 

 with an asterisk) have not been found elsewhere in Ireland 



1 A. H. Hai.iday. — An Essay on the Classification of the Parasitic 

 Hynienoptera of Britain, which correspond with the Ichneumones minuti of 

 Linnreus, Entoin. Mag., vols, i-v, 1833- 1838 (and other papers). 



