THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
79 
that it has been reported as occasionally 
winged in the West Indies ; and it would 
seem probable that here we may detect 
the consequences of heat. 
Nature of the country and of the soil. 
— Many areas have a natural superiority 
over others for the increase of animal 
tribes, even apart from the direct action 
of heat and cold ; thus in Ireland we find 
an insect fauna curiously limited : from 
whatever cause this may arise, the fact 
remains ; and in the mountains of Kerry, 
although abounding with wood and 
water, and presenting every apparent re- 
quisite for the full development of insect 
life, the collector will often be disap- 
pointed by finding that a hard day’s work 
has not ensured him the same amount of 
success as he would have reaped in less 
than half an hour in many an English 
meadow : and Ireland is not only re- 
markable for the paucity of its species, 
but also for the paucity of its individuals. 
In like manner the South-western corner 
of England is by far the most unprofit- 
able portion of our island for insect as- 
cendancy. 
Isolation and exposure to a stormy at- 
mosphere. — The power of isolation over 
insect form is perhaps more especially to 
be detected in deterioration of stature. 
Whether this principally emanates from 
the constant irritation of a stormy atmo- 
sphere, such as small islands are exposed 
to, and which would seem to have 
stunted the development of the animal 
and vegetable worlds during a long 
series of ages, or from a diminution of 
area consequent on the breaking up of 
continuous lands, it is difficult to pro- 
nounce. It is a law, to which a large 
proportion of the organic creation would 
appear to be subject, that the exuberance 
of life, as regards the grandeur of the 
size of the species, has reference to the 
magnitude of the spot over which it is 
permitted to range. The unnatural 
breeding-in of a single race, which must 
of necessity happen, unless the inter- 
course with other varieties of its kind be 
possible, has always been attended with 
effects more or less pernicious : thus on 
Lundy Island Anthonomus aler scarcely 
ever reaches more than half its natural 
bulk, and in Scilly the ordinary speci- 
mens of Calathus melanocephalus and 
Olisthopus rotundatus are diminutively 
small. Vanessa Callirhoe , a species 
nearly allied to our Red Admiral, is per- 
manently smaller in the island of Porto 
Santo than it is on the larger, more 
luxuriant and varied, and therefore more 
protected, island of Madeira proper. 
Sometimes, however, the very converse 
takes place ; for there is a curious ten- 
dency in most islands that the wings of 
their insect inhabitants are liable to be 
retarded in their development, and often 
become evanescent: now when any par- 
ticular organ is either stunted or taken 
away the creature receives a compensa- 
tion for its loss, either by the undue en- 
largement of some other one or else in a 
general increase of bulk : thus in Ma- 
deira Bradycellus fidvus is a trifle more 
robust than its ordinary European re- 
presentations, and it is invariably apte- 
rous. 
The above epitome will suffice to 
assure our readers that the subject does 
not lose in interest by Mr. Wollaston’s 
mode of treatment, and our space for- 
bids us to give further details at present. 
MISCELLANEA. 
Notes and Queries, by J. 0 . West- 
wood, Esq. 
Berry-borer. — At this season of the 
year half-grown gooseberries are occa- 
sionally gnawed by the larva of some 
Lepidopterous insect, which is known 
amongst horticulturists under the name 
of the “ berry-borer.” I believe it is 
most common in the northern counties, 
but that perhaps is not really the case, 
