CHAP, XVI 



THE BRITISH ISLES 



345 



years Britain is its only recorded locality ; but at length it 

 is found on some part of the continent, and not unfrequently 

 has been all the time known there, but disguised by another 

 name, or by being classed as a variety of some other 

 species. This has occurred so often that our best entomo- 

 logists have come to take it for granted that all our 

 supposed peculiar British species are really natives of the 

 continent and will one day be found there ; and owing 

 to this belief little trouble has been taken to bring 

 together the names of such as from time to time remain 

 known from this country only. The view of the probable 

 identity of our entire insect-fauna with that of the continent 

 has been held by such well-known authorities as the late 

 Mr. E. C. Bye and Dr. D. Sharp for the beetles, and by 

 Mr. H. T. Stainton for butterflies and moths ; but as we have 

 already seen that among two orders of vertebrates — birds 

 and fishes — there are undoubtedly peculiar British species, 

 it seems to me that all the probabilities are in favour of there 

 being a much larger number of peculiar species of insects. 

 In every other island where some of the vertebrates are 

 peculiar — as in the Azores, the Canaries, the Andaman Is- 

 lands, and Ceylon — the insects show an equal if not a higher 

 proportion of speciality, and there seems no reason what- 

 ever why the same law should not apply to us. Our 

 climate is undoubtedly very distinct from that of any part of 

 the continent, and in Scotland, Ireland, and Wales we possess 

 extensive tracts of wild mountainous country where a moist 

 uniform climate, an alpine or northern vegetation, and a 

 considerable amount of isolation, offer all the conditions re- 

 quisite for the preservation of some species which may have 

 become extinct elsewhere, and for the slight modification of 

 others since our last separation from the continent. I 

 think, therefore, that it will be very interesting to take stock, 

 as it were, of our recorded peculiarities in the insect 

 world, for it is only by so doing that we can hope to 

 arrive at any correct solution of the question on which there 

 is at present so much difference of opinion. For the list 

 of Coleoptera with the accompanying notes I was 

 originally indebted to the late Mr. E. C. Bye ; and Dr. 

 Sharp also gave me valuable information as to the recent 



