president's address. 
235 
ami Ireland was communicated by Mr. O. V. Aplin. Mr. Preston 
also contributed his Meteorological Notes for 1891. 
Several contributions to the Library were made during the year, 
among which wo may mention two volumes of Emelin’s ‘Travels 
in Russia in 1798,’ and Hernandez' ‘Rerum Mexicanorum,’ thus 
adding to the many valuable works for which the Society is 
indebted to the kindness and liberality of Professor Newton. We 
have also received from Herr Gatke, of Heligoland, the valuable 
work embodying his observations for a lifetime — ‘Die Vbgelwarto 
Helgoland.’ 
A Catalogue of the Library has been compiled, and will be 
printed and issued with the forthcoming number of the 4 Trans- 
actions.’ 
The subject to which I wish for a few minutes to request your 
attention to-night, is the change which has taken place in recent 
times in the distribution of some species of insects. When at the 
close of his year of presidency in 1880 Mr. Southwell read us 
a paper giving details of the extinction of native races of men, 
animals, and birds, I was not only much interested in the paper 
itself, but impressed with the idea that one of the most permanently 
useful employments of such a society as this is to collect and place 
on record details of species rapidly becoming scarce, or even 
verging on extinction. 
When you did me the honour of electing me as your President 
this idea recurred to me, and I at once determined to attempt 
something of the kind with reference to those species of fen insects 
which are now almost or entirely things of the past. I have been 
unable to classify these species according to the cause of their 
disappearance; most of them, no doubt, in some way owe their 
destruction to the action of man, but, as I think, indirectly. 
Indeed, I believe that few insects are ever directly exterminated by 
collectors. Where the imago only is captured, it is well-nigh 
impossible that such should be the case, since almost all the 
female specimens caught have deposited at least a portion of their 
ova before capture ; and in a locality offering so much shelter as 
a fen, the idea of every specimen being hunted down or searched 
