io The Scottish Naturalist. 



OUTLINE DESCRIPTIONS OP BEITISH COLEOPTEEA. 

 By Rev. T. BLACKBURN, B.A. 



I. 



THIS paper is the first of a series in which I hope from time 

 to time to furnish in the briefest possible form (for 

 obvious reasons no other form would be suitable to a quarterly 

 magazine), tables of the leading characters of the British 

 Coleoptera. By using abbreviations for various constantly recur- 

 ring words, and attempting no greater fulness of description 

 than will just suffice for easy identification, I expect to bring 

 the work within reasonable limits. The divisions of groups, 

 families, &c, adopted in the tables will often be artificial {e.g., 

 in the first table, relating to " groups," the Buprestida 

 Eucnemidce, and Elaterida are characterised separately, instead 

 of unitedly as Sternoxi; and in the table of Feroniidce, Pier. 

 incequalis is eliminated from the rest of its genus). The 

 object I have in view, however, is the provision of a ready 

 means of identifying species, not classification. For classifi- 

 cation I will, in passing, refer to Dr. Sharp's " Catalogue 

 of British Coleoptera" (E. W. Janson, 28 Museum Street, Lon- 

 don, W.C., price one shilling) as the best catalogue procurable. 

 I may also refer to Mr E. C. Rye's " British Beetles " (Lovell, 

 Reeve, & Co., 5 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, London, 

 W.C., price ten shillings and sixpence) for the general instruc- 

 tions that want of space prevents my supplying as an introduc- 

 tion to my work. As this series of papers will be designed 

 especially for beginners, I pass by, in describing, characters that 

 cannot be detected without dissection, or the aid of the micro- 

 scope, and select such as can be perceived with an ordinary, or 

 at anyrate with a Coddington, lens ; also, I rely as much as 

 possible on characters connected with the upper side of the 

 insects. In the case of a few genera {Homalota for instance) 

 the species are too minute and closely allied to be distinguish- 

 ably characterised in a short space ; I shall in such cases merely 

 offer a few general remarks, and refer readers who desire more 

 to monographs of them that have been already published on a 

 larger scale than would be practicable for the pages of a 

 magazine. Finally I must express my obligations to Mr. G. C. 

 Champion for information he has courteously supplied to me on 

 the geographical range of many species. 



