• King and Halbei{T — A Lint nl the Neuroptera of Ireland. 33 



of each of the Irish species. The scarcity of records, however, more 

 especially of the families Ephemeridae and Psocidae, not only in the British 

 Isles, but throughont Europe, has rendered the ascertaining of this infor- 

 mation difficult, so that in many cases the distributional notes are very 

 imperfect. The statement that a species ranges from Devonshire to the 

 Shetlands is not meant to imply that it occurs in all parts of Britain ; 

 indeed, in few cases are the records sufficient to justify such a conclusion. 

 All that is meant to be conveyed is that the insect in question has been 

 definitely recorded from these localities, and is at least widely distributed 

 in the Britannic area. 



In spite of the fact that much work remains to be accomplished, the 

 poverty of the Irish fauna, as compared with that of Great Britain, is 

 as manifest amongst the Neuroptera as it is in other groups of insects. 

 It is evident that many conspicuous species and even genera of British 

 Neuroptera are either absent from or of great rarity in this country. 

 In order to show clearly the relative proportions of the two faunas, we 

 have prepared a table giving the number of genera and species found in the 

 two countries, as far as they are known at the present time. It will be 

 seen that we have records of 239 species of Neuroptera in Ireland, or 

 rather less than two-thirds of those recorded from Great Britain. 



— 



Ireland. 



Great Bhitain. 



Genera. 



Species. 



Genera. 



Species. 



Odonata, . , 



15 



23 



20 



42 



EPHEMEKIDAE, . 



11 



24 



14 



39 



Peulidae, 



8 



18 



9 



29 



Psocidae, 



H 



30 



21 



43 



Pl/Vnipennia, . 



9 



31 



14 



.56 



TlUCHOl'TEHA, . 



48 



lU 



Gl 



17.5 





1 05 



240 



139 



381 



The deficiency in number of species is especially noticeable in the 

 case of the Dragon-flies. It has already been pointed out that we possess 

 only twenty-three of the forty-two species recorded from tlio Britannic 

 area. It is of interest to note that the great majority of the nineteen 

 British species which do not appear to have readied Ireland inhabit the 



