150 MR. E. m'I/ACHLAN on THE ISTEUROPTERA OF 



If this be true regarding tlie value of local monographs for 

 countries or districts separated arbitrarily by political frontiers, 

 or physically by mountain-ranges, &c., such monographs become 

 of far greater value when they concern small islands, or groups 

 of islands, separated from the nearest mainland by wide distances 

 and great depths of sea or ocean. Nothing could more forcibly 

 demonstrate this than the labours of our late much lamented col- 

 league T. Vernon WoUaston, who for a period of nearly thirty 

 years devoted his energies, impaired though they too often were 

 by periods of great bodily weakness, to an investigation of the 

 Coleopterous fauna of the various Atlantic islands (beginning with 

 Madeira). The results of his investigations (and of those of willing 

 assistants), given to the public in a number of volumes, form by 

 far the most valuable series of works of this nature that have ever 

 been published, notwithstanding that the ideas held by our late 

 colleague on the subject of variation o£ species maj'', in the opinion 

 of many of us, have induced in him erroneous generalizations. 

 He gave us the facts, however much his own deductions there- 

 from may be disputed. 



In the present paper I shall endeavour to put together all 

 that is known concerning the Neuropterous insects (using the 

 term in its Linnaean sense) of the islands under consideration ; and 

 the remarks that follow will show in how much we are indebted 

 for our knowledge to T. V. WoUaston. 



In endeavouring to state briefly the sources whence our present 

 information has been derived, it will be well to treat the Madeiras 

 and Canaries separately*. 



Madeira. 



This favoured island has been so much the resort of invalids 

 from all countries, that it would have been singular if amongst 

 them there had been no entomologists. On the other hand, it 

 has been but little explored by entomologists who did not seek 

 to restore or ameliorate impaired health ; but there has been one 

 prominent exception to this, to which attention will presently be 

 drawn. 



In 1793 Fabricius described in the ' Entomologia Systematica,' 

 vol. ii. p. 93, a Myrmeleon catta from Madeira, in the collection of 

 Sir Joseph Banks. Tlie type of this (with the other Banksian 



* I must here acknowledge the assistance I have derived from the rich library 

 of the Eoyal Greographical Society. 



