38 



larger rooms, but the negotiations to this effect failed, and all that 

 could be done was to enlarge and improve the old meeting-room. At 

 a considerable expense we have acquired more space, better ventila- 

 tion and gas-light, and it now remains for entomologists to show their 

 appreciation of the endeavours made on their behalf by supporting 

 the Society which has made them. 



The Entomological Season of 1861. 



On all hands it is stated that during the last year, although some 

 new or rare insects have been captured, there has been a scarcity of 

 insects of all Orders in Britain ; and this is generally attributed to the 

 cold and wet season of 1860. It seems quite certain that such was 

 the cause in an instance mentioned in the ' Annual,' p. 75, by 

 Mr. Smith. He says, " I visited a locality at Southend where a very 

 extensive colony of Anthophora has existed for many years, and also 

 one of Eucera longicornis : both these bees, in ordinary seasons, are 

 found at that spot in great numbers, but on my last visit scarcely a 

 single bee was to be seen on one of the finest days of early summer. 

 Being disappointed in my search, I proceeded to dig into the bank in 

 which the colony was situated ; an explanation of the cause of the 

 scarcity of the bees soon presented itself; hundreds of dead bees 

 filled the burrows, whilst numberless cells were half filled with the 

 mouldy remains of honey and pollen stored up for the larvae, which 

 had doubtless perished during the former ungenial season. A similar 

 fate has, I fear, befallen three-fourths of the solitary bees ; and it will, 

 1 fear, be some years before we shall again see these attendants upon 

 spring and early summer, in their usual numbers, flying from flower to 

 flower, and adding life and beauty to the sunny days of spring," We 

 have no similar observations respecting other Orders; indeed, in most 

 cases, from the different economy of the insects, it was not possible to 

 remark the direct influence of the weather upon them; yet it is fair, I 

 think, to conclude that the general scarcity of insects in 1861 was 

 due in a great degree to the cold and wet of 1860. And, this being 

 granted, it is not difficult to see how an exceptional season may not 

 only render some species of insects rare for a time, but may altogether 

 extinguish them in a locality or country, and that thus species may 

 become extinct by a cause which overwhelms all the individuals in 

 one common ruin, and leaves no one of them with a variation of con- 

 stitution or modification of structure wherewith to begin a new species 

 on the principle of " selection " with which we are so familiar. 



