LETTER XLIX. 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF IN- 

 SECTS; THEIR STATIONS AND HAUNTS; 

 SEASONS; TIMES OF ACTION AND RE- 

 POSE. 



1 HOUGH no subject is more worthy of the attention 

 of the Entomologist than the Geographical Distribution 

 of insects, yet perhaps there is none connected with the 

 science, for the elucidation of which he is furnished with 

 fewer materials. The geographer of these animals sit- 

 ting by his fireside, even supposing his museum as amply 

 stored as that of Mr. MacLeay, and the habitats of its 

 contents as accurately indicated, still labours under dif- 

 ficulties that are almost insuperable ; so that it is next to 

 impossible, with our present knowledge of the subject, 

 to give satisfactory information upon every point which 

 it includes. Had he the talents and opportunities of a 

 Humboldt, and could, like him, traverse a large portion 

 of the globe, he would endeavour to note the elevation, 

 the soil and aspect, the latitude and longitude, the mean 

 temperature and meteorological phenomena, the season 

 of the year, the kind of country, and other localities con- 

 nected with the insects he captured, and so might build 

 his superstructure upon a sure basis.- But these are 



