Section V.--Insects.

No work on the entomology of Tasmania has yet appeared, although few countries offer a wider or better field to the zealous entomologist, and it possesses many most interesting species.

There is a great preponderance of Coleoptera over the other orders. Some European forms are common; and several species, as the weevil, apple aphis, slug, &c., have been introduced, and prove most injurious, as they increase with unusual rapidity. The domestic bee was brought to Van Diemen's Land from England by Dr. T. B. Wilson, R.N., in the year 1834; and so admirably does the climate of this island suit this interesting insect that in the first year sixteen swarms were produced from the imported hive! Since that time they have been distributed all over the island, and have been sent to all the adjoining colonies; all those in Australia having been derived from the one hive. In Tasmania they are becoming wild in great numbers, spreading themselves rapidly through all the forests, even to the summits of the western mountains.