BELFAST 



NATURAL HISTORY & PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY 



SESSION 1888-89. 



30/ft October, 1888. 



Thomas Workman, Esq., J.P., in the Chair. 



Rev. W. F. Johnston, M.A., Armagh, read a Paper on 

 IRISH INSECTS. 



The Lecturer said the insects of Ireland have not, he regretted 

 to say, received that amount of attention which the} - deserve. 

 Very little systematic collection has been done except with 

 respect to the lepidoptera. The other orders have practically 

 been entirely neglected, except by solitary collectors. As re- 

 gards the lepidoptera, Mr. Birchall has published in the 

 Entomologist^ Monthly Magazine for 1867 a list of Irish lepi- 

 doptera. In this list he enumerated 961 species, and subse- 

 quently made considerable additions to this number. Since 

 then the lepidoptera of Ireland have received a considerable 

 amount of attention. Mr. De V. Kane has done much good 

 work, and stirred up others in the same direction, and there 

 are now, he thought, collectors of lepidoptera in most parts of 

 Ireland. There is, consequently, every probability of a very 

 complete list of Irish species being compiled. The little that 

 we know about Irish coleoptera is largely due to the ex- 

 ertions of our late gifted fellow townsman, A. L. Halliday. 

 Mr. Halliday had made a very large collection of beetles in 

 Ireland, and it is to be very much regretted that he had 

 turned his attention to other orders of insects ; for such was 



