ENTOMOLOGY - COLEOPTERA. 315 



preceding the first ventral, the second being sometimes, in conjunction with 

 the third, opposed to this one. Something similar occurs, also, in other 

 orders of insects, where the abdomen is closely attached to the thorax, but 

 in that case there is commonly but one dorsal segment opposite to the first 

 ventral. 



Of Guerin's Species et Iconograpliie geuerique cles 

 Anirnaux articules, no more has come to hand than the 

 portions noticed in last year's Report (p. 122.) 



Die Kafer Europa's, nach der Natur beschrieben yon Dr. 

 H. C. Kiister, mit Beitragen. rnehrerer Entomologen. ler 

 Band. Niirnberg, 1844. Verlag von Bauer mid Raspe. 



The plan of this work is very good. The species are described very fully, 

 each on a separate leaf, in no determinate order, so that the possessor 

 can arrange them as he pleases. Experience, it is true, proves the expedi- 

 ency of treating a series of allied species in their relative connexion, partly 

 that the specific characters may be brought out more prominently, partly 

 that the medley of synonyms may be duly sifted. But the unfettered form 

 of the work admits of this also when requisite. Ou the other hand it allows 

 of interesting discoveries being published without delay, In a work of the 

 sort this may counterbalance the higher value in a scientific point of view, 

 which a connected systematic treatment confers on a Fauna. In respect to 

 its geographical limits, the European Fauna presents some difficulties. The 

 author makes it extend over the whole basin of the Mediterranean, taking 

 in also the coasts of the Black Sea, Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt, Barbary, 

 Madeira, and the Canary Islands. But the Fauna of Northern Africa, 

 along with much that is in common to it and Southern Europe, has many 

 peculiar and purely African forms to show, and would introduce into the 

 European Faiuia elements quite foreign to it, as Grapldpterus and Stemspis. 

 In this direction the Mediterranean is a sufficient boundary. The limit is 

 not so easily drawn on the Asiatic side, since through the whole of Northern 

 Asia no natural line of demarcation presents itself, and the Fauna of Dauria, 



with those of the three preceding segments, as hysterothorax (after-chest), 

 and hysteronotum (after-chine.) Ratzeburg (Ent. Zeit. 1844, p. 151) has 

 perceived, and stated in general terms, the existence of a fourth thoracic 

 segment following that which bears the hind pair of wings. Newport 

 (Todd's Cyclopedia of Anatomy, ii, p. 911) has called it thoracico-abdomiual, 

 as if not entirely belonging either to the thorax or abdomen. If the analogy 

 to the perfect insect has the weight assumed in tin's note, the segment 

 immediately following the three that bear the legs, or the fifth of the body, 

 in larva-, must be considered normally as a segment of the thorax, although 

 in descriptions it may be needless to vary the terms in common use. TR. 





