INSECTS" There are few English counties which had a more interesting insect fauna than Kent, and this was doubtless due to its numerous and extensive woods and marshes, to the varied geological formations, its vast extent of coast line and river border and its proximity to the continent. Until a comparatively recent period probably no county in England produced so many species of insects and so large a number of specimens ; but the advantageous natural conditions of Kent have during the last fifty years been seriously injured by over-cultivation and over-population, the destruction of old woods and by the gradual encroachment, on the north-western portion of the county, of London and its south-eastern suburbs. The very small amount of common and waste lands in the county, as compared with the thousands of acres of forests or woods, heaths and commons in Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire, Dorset, Devon and many other counties, and the extensive acreage devoted to hop gardens, orchards and market gardens, may account for the rarity or entire absence of some species formerly abundant in the county. On the other hand certain species which are common on the continent are more frequently found in Kent than in any other county in England.^ Probably no other English county has been so thoroughly worked for the Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) ; and the Coleoptera (beetles) have also been most assiduously collected. The Orthoptera (grass- hoppers, etc.), the Hymenoptera (bees, wasps and ants) and the Hemiptera (bugs) have not been neglected ; but the Neuroptera (dragon- flies, etc.) and Diptera (flies) seem to have received less attention than has been given to these orders in many other counties. ORTHOPTERA Earwigs, Grasshoppers, Crickets, Cockroaches, etc. With the exception of Hampshire, Kent has a longer list of species of this order than any other English county. Altogether thirty-three ' The sequence of the orders here followed is that adopted by Dr. D. Sharp, F.R.S., in the Cambridge Natural History (1889-92). — H. G. - I have to express my cordial thanks, for valuable assistance received, to the late Mr. C. G. Barrett, F.E.S.; the late Mr. A. Beaumont, F.E.S. ; Mr. B. Bower, F.E.S. ; Mr. Malcolm Burr, Bj., F.L.S. ; Mr. E. A. Butler, B.A., B.Sc. ; Mr. Arthur J. Chitty, M.A., F.E.S ; Mr. Albert B. Earn, F.E.S. ; Mr. Charles Fenn, F.E.S.-, Mr. Hubert Elgar ; the Rev. Canon Fowler, M.A., D.Sc, F.L.S. ; Mr. Edward Goodwin; the late Colonel Howard L. Irby, F.L.S. ; Mr. William J. Lucas, B.A., F.E.S. ; Dr. H. G. Knaggs.M.D., F.L.S. ; the late Mr. Robert McLachlan,F.R.S. ; Captain Savile G. Reid, R.E.,F.Z.S. ; Mr. Edward Saunders, F.R.S. ; Mr. Frederick W. L. Sladen, F.E.S. ; Mr. J. W. Tutt, F.E.S. ; Commander J. J. Walker, R.N., F.L.S. ; Mr. Sydney Webb ; Mr. W. West; and Colonel John W. Yerbury, R.A., F.Z.S.— H. G. 103
