789(5 



Insects. 



your eyes open you may do something towards it yourself." — (Ent. 

 VV. Int. i. 50). How far " S. R. M," the individual therein immediately 

 addressed, may have profited by the editorial counsel I know not, for 

 since my coming hither it has not been my good fortune to see net 

 entomological plied other than my own. Of nets piscatorial of course 

 there are quantum sufficLt and a few over, at least so complain 

 one's olfactory nerves now and then. Yet surely the island is not 

 without a peculiar interest, arising from its central position between 

 England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland; and as a terra incognita in 

 the heart of the British seas, easily accessible and of late years much 

 visited, it is rather surprising that it should have been quite overlooked 

 by such indefatigable explorers as Dr. Power, Mr. Wollaston and Mr. 

 Clark. I include Mr. Clark because I am sure that he can only have 

 paid it a flying visit if he found nothing more remarkable than the 

 occurrence of Hydroporus 12-pustulatus to record concerning its Co- 

 leoptera. 



It is only of this immediate neighbourhood that I can speak with 

 any confidence ; for be it remembered the Isle of Man — " the Island," 

 as we pretentiously style it — is rather larger than Lundy, the Wollas- 

 ton-explored, and the Scilly Isles of Holiman note. Nevertheless in 

 soil, geological formation and local features this district will represent 

 at least half the island, with a consequent probability of no great vari- 

 ation in the insect fauna of that half. The sandy level of the North, 

 with its " cnrraghs " or bog-lands, from which the sea has retired at a 

 very recent date geologically speaking, — the old red sandstone of the 

 Western Coast, — and the limestone district in the South, — each of 

 these has probably its own special denizens which will find no record 

 here. Let me then, as briefly as may be, glance at the peculiar features 

 of this locality. The soil is light, gravelly and generally shallow, 

 resting upon schistose rocks, which rise rapidly from the cliffs of the 

 coast to a height of 1000 — 1200 feet, over which towers the summit 

 of Nortto Barrule, 1900 feet. Of level land there is none. Cultivation 

 reaches an average height of 850 feet; beyond this all the land is un- 

 enclosed moor. Glens and ravines varying much in depth and extent 

 plough up table land and hillside in all directions, the beds of as many 

 pretty rivulets, and, where not cloven abruptly through the rock, their 

 lower slopes are rendered swampy by the constant exudation of the 

 water which has fallen on the higher land and been repelled by the 

 underlying rock. Insignificant brooks and shallow puddles on the 

 moors, where the surface has been peeled for fuel, are our only waters, 

 saving always the sublime presence ever with us of the great deep. 



