294 Mr Wilson on the Distribution of Insects. 



British entomology, when viewed in relation to its general 

 aspect, may therefore be said to exhibit this peculiar feature, 

 that while its warmer portion presents, as it were, the outposts 

 of certain southern species, which entirely disappear as we 

 journey northwards, the northern portion supplies us with a 

 few of the Scandinavian species which do not multiply so freely 

 in more genial climes. 



Another characteristic, of more general application both to 

 Britain and Ireland, arises from the circumstance of the British 

 islands lying so much to the west of all those central and north- 

 ern parts of Europe, with which they might otherwise be com- 

 pared ; while they themselves are flanked in a westerly direc- 

 tion by nothing nearer than Labrador. The consequence is, 

 that many of the central European species do not extend to 

 our meridians, while, as no true insect inhabits the sea, we gain 

 nothing from our vicinity to the vast waters of the Atlantic. 

 Yet several of the diurnal lepidoptera of Britain seem identical 

 with species which occur in North America. This, however, 

 does not in any way arise from our being nearer the western 

 world than are the other parts of Europe, but rather from 

 those particular species being almost cosmopolite, or at least 

 occurring in all the countries of the northern hemisphere. It 

 would, however, be extremely interesting to ascertain whether 

 we have any species altogether peculiar to our cloudy clime. 

 But views of this nature have not as yet greatly exercised the 

 skill of our native entomologists, — perhaps wisely, in as far as 

 a more extensive collection of facts is previously indispensable. 

 The entomology of England, however, is now in a condition to 

 be in some measure legitimately generalized. 



Clivinia fossor. 

 Dischirius gibbosus, 

 Broscus cephalotes. 

 Feronia nigrita. 



orinomum. 

 nigra, 

 melanaria. 

 Abax striola. 

 Poecilus cupreus. 

 Argutor erythropus. 



pullus. 

 Patrobus rufipes. 

 Harpalus seneus. 



limbatus. 



Cicindela campestris. 

 Cychrus rostratus. 

 Carabus catenulatus. 



glabratus. 



clathratus. 



hortensis. 



violaceus. 



cancellatus. 



arvensis. 

 Helobia brevicolJis. 



Gyllenhalii. 

 Leistus rufescens. 

 Lamprias chlorocephalus. 

 Tarus basalis. 



