212 REVIEWS. 



The Cabinet of British Entomology, containing, in a systematic arrangement, 

 carefully-coloured illustrations, and descriptions from Nature, of the most 

 beautiful and interesting Native Insects. By C. Weightman Harrison. London : 

 SiMPKiN AND Marshall. Edinburgh: J. Menzies. Dublin: J. M' Glashan. 

 Coloured Plates. One Shilling each Number. 



The difficulties which necessarily attend the commencement of a work like 

 the present, are very considerable, not so much with regard to the letter- 

 press, as the execution of the engravings; for so little is usually known by 

 our engravers generally, of Natural History, that they can hardly be made 

 to comprehend the points to be attended to in delineating any animal or 

 insect. These difficulties are evident in the first number, which contains the 

 commencement of the extensive tribe of Coleoptera; but in the fourth, in 

 which the larger water-beetles are figured, there is a very great and excellent 

 improvement. If the succeeding numbers contain equally good figures of those 

 which follow, as we have no doubt they will, we anticipate much benefit from 

 the work. Its price places it within reach of the great bulk of entomologists, 

 who have hitherto been debarred from possessing systematic works on their 

 favourite subject, by the great price at which they were issued. 



We trust the work now before us may induce many to commence a study 

 of our native insects, the general arrangement of which they will find much 

 facilitated by the "Cabinet of British Entomology." To give an idea of the 

 useful nature of the work, we transcribe the following from the fourth 

 number : — 



Family— DYTISCID^. Genus— DYTISCUS.— 8 Species. 



Character — antennce, eleven-jointed, the first, or basal joint, longest, the second, shortest; external 



maxillary palpi, with the second and third joints equal, the terminal joint somewhat truncated ; head, 



transverse; scutellum, distinctly formed; anterior tarsi, in the males, patelliform, spongy beneath; 



intermediate tarsi, in the males, dilated in their three basal joints. 



The large size of all the species renders this genus of Water-Beetles a very conspicuous 

 one. By means of their fringed legs they are enabled to swim with rapidity, and to dart 

 suddenly upon their prey, which rarely escapes them ; this consists of other insects, aquatic 

 worms, young fishes, &c. The larvae attain a length of about two inches ; the entire body 

 including the head, is divided into twelve segments, of which the three immediately behind 

 the head are each provided with a pair of legs. The head is furnished with two short 

 antenna;, and two powerful jaws. At the extremity of their body are two lateral appen- 

 dages, by means of which they suspend themselves on the surface of the Avater, and thus 

 absorb a supply of air for respiration. In changing their position, they strike the water 

 with their tail, and at the same time impart a sudden vermicular motion to the body. 

 When the period of their metamorphosis has amved, they leave the water and bury 

 themselves in the humid earth of the shore. It is stated by Eocsel, that the eggs of D- 

 marginalis are, during summer, hatched in from ten to twelve days, that in fifteen days 

 the larvsB enter the pupa state, and at the end of fifteen or twenty more, become perfect 

 insects. 



Fig. 1. — D. conformis. The Large Alike-formed Water-Beetle. Head, olive, the anterior 

 margin reddish brown, and a rather deeper red triangular-formed blotch on the forehead; 

 thorax, dark greenish olive, bordered with ochreous yellow, finely punctulated, the anterior 

 margin dotted with a row of minute impressions, the posterior margin sinuous ; elytra, 

 dark greenish olive, margined with ochreous yellow, finely punctulated ; each elytron with 

 three faintly formed lines of minute impressions; antennai and legs, pale ochreous; body, 

 ochreous yellow beneath, the sutures of the breast, and segments of the abdomen towards 



