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. Rye; and Dr. Sharp also gave me valuable
information as to the recent {346} occurrence of some of the supposed
peculiar species on the continent. The list has now been revised by the
Rev. Canon Fowler, author of the best modern work on the British
Coleoptera, who has kindly furnished some valuable notes.

For the Lepidoptera I first noted all the species and varieties marked as
British only in Staudinger's Catalogue of European Lepidoptera. This list
was carefully corrected by Mr. Stainton, who weeded out all the species
known by him to have been since discovered, and furnished me with valuable
information on the distribution and habits of the species. This information
often has a direct bearing on the probability of the insect being peculiar
to Britain, and in some cases may be said to explain why it should be so.
For example, the larvae of some of our peculiar species of Tineina feed
during the winter, which they are enabled to do owing to our mild and
insular climate, but which the severer continental winters render
impossible. A curious example of the effect this habit may have on
distribution is afforded by one of our commonest British species,
_Elachista rufocinerea_, the larva of which mines in the leaves of _Holcus
mollis_ and other grasses from December to March. This species, though
common everywhere with us, extending to Scotland and Ireland, is quite
unknown in similar latitudes on the continent, but appears again in Italy,
the South of France, and Dalmatia, where the mild winters enable it to live
in its accustomed manner.

Such cases as this afford an excellent illustration of those changes of
distribution, dependent probably on recent changes of climate, which may
have led to the restriction of certain species to our islands. For should
any change of climate lead to the extinction of the species in South
Europe, where it is far less abundant than with us, we should have a common
and wide-spread species entirely restricted to our islands. Other species
feed in the larva state on our com