exiv The Transactions of the South African Philosophical Society 
portion of its cost from the receipts for specimens supplied to museums 
in foreign countries. The demand for them is practically unlimited for 
a long time to come, for there are many museums at home which 
possess almost nothing out of the rich fauna of our seas. 
Entomology has largely benefited from the enthusiasm of three of 
our members—Messrs. Trimen, Brady, and Peringuey. Mr. Trimen’s 
beautifully illustrated work on the Butterflies of South Africa is a just 
cause for pride, not only to the author, but also to the country which 
produced it; and to Mr. Péringuey’s book on the first two families of 
the Coleoptera I have already alluded in the introduction. 
With regard to the distribution of beetles, Mr. Brady has drawn our 
attention to the curious limitation of the area of certain varieties of 
Trichostetha Capensis ; while, in their presidential addresses, Messrs. 
Trimen and Péringuey treated some other highly interesting subjects, 
the former ‘Mimicry among Insects,’ and the latter ‘ Parasitic Wasps 
and Bees and their own Parasites.’ In addition to these, Mr. Péringuey 
favoured us with some notes on the parasites of locusts and on insects 
injurious to forest trees, while Mr. Alston discovered a species of Torubia 
growing on the larvee of some beetle (Moluris spec.). How much has to 
be learnt as yet about the life-history and the habits of our insects ! 
And this is not a scientific matter only, but one of the greatest 
economic importance, it being more and more recognised in all parts ot 
the world, that the study of the problems of insect life is of highly 
practical value. It is fortunate for this country that a special appoint- 
ment has already been made, and that consequently a systematic investi- 
gation of all questions relating to economic entomology will soon be 
undertaken. 
On this occasion I should like to refer to a subject that appears to 
me especially promising. There are many extensive caves in our 
mountain ranges, but nothing is known about their fauna. Although 
they may not contain any higher animal, ¢.g., a new species of Proteus, 
as Sir Bartle Frere suggested, there is no doubt that in every one of 
them some insects could be found. 
Who would have imagined that there could be a whole fauna of 
insects on the snowfields of the Matroosberg? And yet, during a hurried 
march two years ago, I collected eleven different species of flies and 
bugs. It appears to me a great deal more certain that our caves con- 
tain some representatives of the peculiar blind and bleached subter- 
ranean fauna (mites, springtails, spiders), of which some hundred 
different species are known from the caves of Europe and America, 
many being identical in both countries. And what an important bear- 
ing would the discovery of any species that should resemble its Northern 
allies have on the question of the ‘independent development of the 
