THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 217 



gives us for the first time a correct idea of tlie fauna of many restricted 

 localities. The results of the most careful local investigations are not 

 recorded ; it may be of interest, therefore, to learn that the Coleopterous 

 fauna of what, in my opinion, is the best explored point in North America, 

 viz., the District of Columbia, amounts to upward of 3,200 species. 



The absence of resident coleopterists in a large portion of the South, 

 and more especially in Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, and Arkansas is 

 sorely felt ; the high mountains of North Carolina have never been 

 explored coleopterologically ; only a small portion of the semitropical 

 region of Florida has been visited by coleopterists ; and what little we 

 know of the Coleoptera from the extreme northwest is due to the exertions 

 of European entomologists. A recent Danish writer informs us that 

 twenty-five species is the total of what is known of the Coleopterous 

 fauna of Greenland ! 



To sum up : I fully believe that if the material of North American 

 Coleoptera now scattered in many collections could be concentrated we 

 would have a very fair representation of our fauna, and this not only in 

 the larger and more conspicuous species, but also in the previously 

 neglected Microcoleoptera even of those groups which have not yet been 

 worked up. 



I may add that, thanks to the example and advice given by a few 

 coleopterists, specimens in collections are now generally much more 

 carefully mounted, and, therefore, more readily available for study than 

 was the case some twenty years ago. The old reproach that specimens 

 from American collections are poorly mounted or pinned, and generally 

 in a miserable state of preservation has no longer any force. On the other 

 hand the importance of a more exact and more scientific mode of labelling 

 is slowly becoming recognized by our coleopterists, and still disregarded in 

 some collections which would otherwise possess high scientific value. 

 Improvement and progress in this respect are, however, visible of late 

 years. 



That the classification of the North American Coleoptera is more 

 advanced and in a more satisfactory condition than that of any of the 

 other large orders, is almost wholly due to the genius of two men. It 

 was Dr. Leconte who at an early period of his studies recognized that our 

 Coleoptera had to be treated in a monographic or synoptic way, based 

 upon studies independent of the classification of the European fauna. 

 What he accomplished during his lifetime has been ably set forth by 



