Page:VCH Worcestershire 1.djvu/121

 INSECTS The insects of Worcestershire have unfortunately been only partially studied. In this, as in most counties, the Lepidoptera seem to have engaged the attention of collectors to the exclusion of most of the other orders, and consequently it is impossible to give here lists or notes of the Orthoptera, Diptera or Hemiptera. The physical features and climate of the county are favourable to a fairly representative insect fauna, for with the exception of coast, fen, high altitude and extreme northern or southern species the entomologist has every chance of obtain- ing types of any of our English genera. Its surface is undulating and diversified, but in taking a comprehensive view of the whole county its lowest level is in the centre, across the vale of the Severn, and it rises gradually towards the surrounding boundary until it reaches in most directions to a considerable height, especially towards the west where the Malvern Hills rise to a height of 1,394 feet. Throughout the county the woods are well distributed, and the Randans in the neigh- bourhood of Bromsgrove, and the primeval Wyre or Bewdley Forest in the north-west, consisting chiefly of scrub oak, birch, hazel and alder, with an occasional beech and some Scotch firs, are tracts of native wood- land which offer a wide field for research to the collector. Wild heathy or sandy wastes and commons are also plentifully dispersed ; such are Hartlebury Common, Kempsey Common, Defford Common, Habberley Valley, Blakedown, Dodderhill, Castle Morton and Malvern Link amongst others. The bogs of Wyre Forest, Hartlebury Common and West Malvern have also their particular interest for the collector ; and in the neighbourhood of Longdon Marsh, which was of considerable extent before it was drained and divided up many years ago, may be found a few insects lingering in the old haunts, whither they used to be drawn by their favourite plants. The county is well watered by its rivers and natural pools, such for instance as are formed by the brooks running down into the Stour ; and also to a great extent artificially by its reservoirs and canals. Man has also added to the variety of the county's flora and extended the entomologist's field by cultivation. Besides the usual pasture and arable lands, the pear and apple orchards and the hop-yards cover an extensive area in the south and west, and in the neighbourhood of Pershore and Evesham large districts are devoted to market gardening. The diversified physical character of the county, affecting as it does the insect fauna to so large an extent, should offer a strong inducement 83