88 ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE 



REVIEWS. 



Art. I. — Illustrations of the Zoology of South Africa. By An- 

 drew Smith, M.D. No. 3, Annulosa ; by W. S. MacLeay, 

 Esq., M.A., F.L.S. London : 1838. 4to., 75 pp. 4 col. plates. 



As the contents of the present and preceding numbers of the 

 * Magazine of Natural History 1 place before our readers 

 some valuable additions to our knowledge of the Cetoniida, 

 it appears to us a desirable opportunity for noticing the work 

 at the head of this article, or rather that portion of it in which 

 attention is so prominently directed to this group of insects. 

 The plan of this part is not in accordance with that of the 

 two which have preceded it, and to which we shall on a future 

 occasion advert. The Annulosa have been placed in the 

 hands of Mr. MacLeay, who has here given us, not a se- 

 ries of isolated descriptions, but illustrations of particular 

 groups worked out upon the quinarian principle. 



Acquainted with Mr. MacLeay's great opportunities for 

 investigation whilst at the Havannah, naturalists were anx- 

 ious to learn whether his views, as developed in the ' Horae 

 Entomological,' remained unchanged, or whether the recent at- 

 tempts which have been made to uphold a trinarian, quater- 

 nian, or septenary system, had materially altered them. That 

 Dr. Smith's work should have been chosen for the solution of 

 these enquiries, we cannot but regret, as it gives to the work 

 the appearance of a want of unity in the plan ; and we fear 

 that there are many readers who would have preferred de- 

 scriptions and figures of a greater number of species, rather 

 than the endless and unsatisfactory observations intended to 

 support the favorite views of the author. 



The number contains three memoirs, which we will proceed 

 shortly to notice. The first is entitled " On the Cetonia? of 

 South Africa," but it is rather a memoir on the quinary distri- 

 bution of the Cetoniidce, with descriptions of the new South 

 African species, twenty-one in number. It would lead us too 

 far to analyse the introductory remarks ; but it is worthy of 

 notice that Mr. MacLeay deems the following as the uniform 

 gradational series in the Animal Kingdom; 1, Sub-kingdom ; 

 2, Class ; 3, Order ; 4, Tribe ; 5, Stirps ; 6, Family : 7, Ge- 

 nus ; 8, Sub-genus ; 9, Section ; 10, Sub-section ; 11, Species : 

 each of these groups except the last, being divisible into five 

 minor groups, and forming a circle. But Mr. MacLeay him- 

 self, in the outset, shows the inconvenience of supporting such 

 a series, by introducing another division without a name, be- 

 tween the stirps and family ; namely, — " 5, Stirps, Petaloce- 



