VI. INTEODTJCTION. 



I would also wish to acknowledge the deep debt of gratitude 

 which the Society owes to Mr. E. R. Bankes for the valuable 

 services he has rendered towards the compilation of this volume. 

 His cessation from active work, and the cause thereof, is a 

 matter of deep regret, for his contributions to entomology, 

 which have been great and many, can be badly spared. 



The total number of species now recorded for our counties is 

 1169, being 56'7 per cent, of the total number of British 

 species, which Meyrick gives as 2061. 



Mr. Porritt, in his list of Yorkshire Lepidoptera, gives 1379 

 species as occurring in that county, being 66*9 per cent, 

 of the British species according to Meyrick. As the area 

 of Yorkshire is more than double that of Northumberland 

 and Durham combined, we may congratulate ourselves that 

 our lepidopterous fauna compares so favourably with that 

 of the neighbouring county. That the list will be increased 

 when the high moorlands of both counties are worked by 

 competent collectors is to me almost a matter of certainty — 

 but to do this thoroughly requires the collector to be resident 

 from year's end to year's end iu such a locality. A visit of two 

 or three weeks during the summer months cannot be expected 

 to reveal the entire fauna of a district ; moreover, a stranger 

 could not collect after dark over such difficult ground in the 

 same manner as a resident collector would be able to do, and it 

 must be borne in mind that many species of both Macro- 

 and Micro-lepidoptera are never on the wing before darkness 

 sets in. 



And now a word of advice to young collectors. Do not 

 collect Macros only, but Micros as well ; the setting of the latter 

 will soon come easy, and more advanced collectors will always 

 be willing to assist in naming specimens. 



J. Gardnek. 

 Laurel Lodge, Hart, 



December 20th, 1912. 



