200 Bibliographical Notices. 



so far unite many of the consecutive nuclei which ave now considered 

 well defined, that we shall be driven at last either to accept the Lin- 

 nsean genera only, or else the whole host of subsidiary ones (albeit 

 perhaps in a secondary sense) which are, one by one, being expunged. 

 And, since under the former contingency the determination of spe- 

 cies would become practically well nigh impossible, it is far from 

 unlikely that we shall eventually hail the latter as after all (at any 

 rate to a certain extent) the more convenient of the two. The natu- 

 ralist who looks upon harsh lines of demarcation as alone generic 

 would perhaps be doomed to disappointment, were he able to glance 

 into the future some hundred years hence and survey the innumerable 

 links (unthought of now) which science will in all probability have 

 then revealed. Every year indeed is proving more and more that in 

 nature such do not in reality exist ; and if this should be the case, it 

 is clear that our definition of genera must, sooner or later, be alto- 

 gether remodelled ; and that (if they are to be accepted at all, — and 

 it is diflScult to conceive, under our present system of nomenclature, 

 how we are to do without them) we shall have to content ourselves 

 eventually in regarding them as the emanations (within given areas) 

 from centres of radiation, rather than as uniform and isolated types. 



In his elimination of '* species," Mr. Dawson has certainly done a 

 public service ; for it has long been evident to the working coleopte- 

 rists of this country, that a very extensive weeding was indispensable 

 before even an approximate idea of our Geodephagous fauna could 

 be arrived at. As a proof of the wholesale destruction which he has 

 committed, it will be enough to mention that, whilst in Mr. Ste- 

 phens's list the section which he has monographed numbered 449 

 species (supposed to be truly indigenous), he has catalogued but 290 ! 

 And yet, in spite of this extraordinary falling-off, many bond fide 

 novelties are introduced with which Mr. Stephens was not ac- 

 quainted, — and which are, in fact, for the first time recorded as Bri- 

 tish. Such, for instance, are Harpalus sulphuripes, Germ, (disco- 

 vered by Mr. Jacques near Bristol) ; H. melancholicus, Dej. (cap- 

 tured by Mr. Wollaston on the sandy coasts of Swansea and Tenby, 

 in South Wales) ; Stenolophus elegans, Dej . (detected by the Rev. 

 Hamlet Clark in the Isle of Sheppey) ; Bembidium fiuviatile, Dej. 

 (taken by Mr. Hadfield on the banks of the Trent, near Newark) ; 

 B. Stomoides, Dej. (found by Mr. Bold along the margins of a 

 stream between Lanercost Abbey and Naworth Castle, in Cumber- 

 land) ; and B. callosum^ Kust. (discovered by Mr. Steuart on Woking 

 Common) . 



In addition to these well-known European insects (which he is the 

 first to admit into our fauna), Mr. Dawson has described five as alto- 

 gether new to science : namely, Dyschirius impunctij^ennis (a large 

 and distinct species discovered by himself on the Smallmouth sands, 

 near Weymouth) ; D. jejunus (due to the researches of Mr. Bold of 

 Newcastle, who detected it on the banks of the river Irthing in Cum- 

 berland) ; Harpalus Wollastoni (found by Mr. Wollaston at Slapton 

 Ley, in Devonshire, — but which appears to be very nearly akin to, if 

 not actually identical with, the H. litigiosus^ I^^JO ; ^^^^ Stenolophus 



