Cooke: On Scarcity and Abundance in Insect Life. 163 



Anthobium Sorbi, Gyll. In thousands on Heracleum spliondylium, 

 Coxley Valley, July 28tli. 



OETHOPTEEA, 



Mr. Wm. Denison Roebuck, on page 117, No. Ixxix., vol. vii. 

 Naturalist, refers to a grasshopper (Meconema varia), which has been 

 observed to frequent the trees in Edlington Wood, near Doncaster. 



In conclusion, I beg to tender my thanks to the gentlemen whose 

 names appear in this Report, for the information they so kindly placed 

 at my disposal, and, further, to remind you that it must not be thought 

 for a moment that I wish, by this Report, to interfere in any way with 

 (but rather to assist) the present editorship of the " Transactions." 

 My only idea was to submit to you, so far as I was able, the work of 

 the Section during the past year. My reasons for so doing are two- 

 fold. First, that a knowledge of the work accomplished might be in 

 your hands as soon after the termination of the year as possible, which, 

 owing to the time that must inevitably lapse before the "Transactions" 

 can be expected, is most desirable. Second, I felt that greater stimulus 

 to exertion would probably be given to members attending the meetings 

 during the year, if a report could be laid before them at the annual 

 meeting, detailing particulars of the work done by the Section during 

 its various rambles in connection with the Union. 



6, Herbert's Terrace. Thorne, Wakefield, 

 March 4th, 1882. 



ON SCARCITY AND ABUNDANCE IN INSECT LIFE.* 

 By Benj. Cooke. 



The object I have in view, in this paper, is to call attention to the 

 causes which sometimes produce scarcity in insect life, and also to the 

 phenomena which occur now and then of excessive abundance in 

 some species. These are problems which to my mind have not 

 hitherto had any satisfactory solution, yet they are surely worthy of 

 patient and careful study. 



It may be said, at the outset, that entomologists already know most 

 of the causes which produce scarcity, and that excessive abundance is 

 simply a result of the absence of those causes, or most of them ; in. 

 other words, that it is due to the absence of those checks which Nature 



* Read at the February Meeting of the Lancashire and Cheshire Entomological 



Society. 



