118 THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
It is very natural that’ants should have 
become scarce round London ; the inva- 
sion of the country by the houses would 
alone account for this, without the aid of 
the collectors. I dare say the collectors 
were rude enough in their operations, but 
such proceedings were only in consonance 
with an age that used lucifer-matches, 
thought a steam-engine a fine thing, and 
lavished encomiums upon the genius that 
invented railways. The methods used by 
collectors may have caused some diminu- 
tion in the number of ants, but you must 
remember that, at the time you write of, 
the game laws were in force, the ants 
were preserved for the food of the phea- 
sants, and that it was very difficult to 
gain access to woods, — all of which cir- 
cumstances tended to the increase of the 
ants, and their preservation from col- 
lectors. Now that we obtain materials 
direct from their elements and only grow 
trees for ornament, we can scarcely ima- 
gine how the ground was then cumbered 
with limber, which was required for 
building and fuel ; the clearing away of 
the wood must have affected the existence 
of insects that lived in their shelter. 
Banks and hedge-rows having also dis- 
appeared, the species that were sheltered 
therein would necessarily become scarce. 
And when you deplore the scarcity of ants 
you must not omit to lake into account 
the effects produced by collecting in a 
restricted area, even in a moderate way, 
by the vast number of persons, whose 
total has increased annually for more than 
a century, until, as you say, “ now every 
house contains a Museum of Natural 
History.” I beard of one collector who 
had lately discovered the head-quarters 
of a rare and local bee on the coast of 
Norfolk, and in order that he might get 
a series he actually went and resided at 
the place, and captured as many as he* * 
possibly could. Gould we wonder if that 
species were to be extinguished ? You 
see that our generation has its own sins 
to answer for, and that if any scarcity of 
ants or other insects exists in consequence 
of the captures of collectors, those who 
have borne the net before our time ought 
not to have all the blame. I doubt much, 
however, if the attacks of entomologists 
upon insects produce any very appreci- 
able effect upon their numbers ; what 
they lose in one generation they make up 
in the next. If any human exertions 
could have extirpated a race of insects, 
we should have been free by this time 
from wasps and bed-bugs, against which 
the war has for ages been unceasing. 
Upon the whole, then, and without at 
all commending the reckless proceedings 
quoted by you, such as giving the sack to 
whole colonies of ants, I am inclined to 
attribute the scarcity of ants, as well as 
other insects, in the metropolitan district, 
to more causes than the ravages of col- 
lectors. I think it is also an exaggera- 
tion to say that ants have become rare in 
France and Germany ; living in the heart 
of the city, you seem to forget how large 
those countries are, and that there are yet 
thousands of acres upon which an ento- 
mologist has never set foot. 
I regret that auy enquiries of mine 
should have so entirely put your pipe out ; 
be consoled, and come and smoke a 
friendly calumet with 
Yours very sincerely, 
A. Smith Johnson. 
NATURAL HISTORY OF THE 
TINKINA. 
The Genus Depresbauia. 
(Continued from p. 112.) 
*Miserclla. Herrich-Schaffer states 
that this species, which is closely allied 
to Douglasella , was bred by Herr Schmid, 
of Frankfort-on-the-Main, from larvae off 
elm trees ( Riislemraupen ). 
Ocellana. The larva of this species 
feeds on the leaves of sallows and willows 
in July. 
