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XXXIV. On the Paussida, a Family of Coleopterous Insects. 

 By Mr. J. O. Westwood, F.L.S. 



Read June I, 1830. 



Influenced by the desire which every naturalist ought to 

 entertain, that the treasures of Nature collected and discovered 

 by his countrymen, or added to our museums and cabinets 

 through their zeal and assiduity, should also be made known 

 by fellow-naturalists of his native rather than of foreign coun- 

 tries, (although for the advancement of science it might even 

 be wished that these treasures, rather than remain unnoticed 

 and undescribed, should be thrown open to the examination of 

 and be described by foreign naturalists ;) and considering it the 

 duty of every member of the Linnean Society to add his mite, 

 however scanty, to the stores of knowledge which are recorded 

 in its Transactions, — it was my intention, on becoming ac- 

 quainted with the interesting nondescript insect, subsequently 

 described under the name of Pentaplatarthrus Paiissoides, merely 

 to have offered to the Society its description, with a few ob- 

 servations upon its affinities, to prove its relationship to the 

 Paussida, one of the most interesting families of Coleopterous 

 insects. On discovering, however, in our cabinets, in addition 

 to this new genus, not only several other undescribed species 

 belonging to the family, but also such a variation of structure 

 in some of the known species as to warrant their separation 

 from Paussus, and finding that confusion had been introduced 

 into the nomenclature even of the few species composing the 

 VOL. XVI. 4 I family, 



