102 NOTICES OF SERIALS. 



Kingdom. Miscellaneous Notices. — Ornithology in the House of Commons. 

 Resuscitation of Plants. Turtle Doves. Eristalis nubilipennis in Ireland. 

 Liparis monacha in Lincolnshire. Purple Emperor in Lincolnshire. Swallow 

 roosting in a hedge. Erebia blandina, &c. The Querist. — The Ringed 

 Guillemot. 



Transactions of the Entomological Society of London. New series. 8vo. 



London. Vol. IV. Part IV. ; with One Plate. 1857. Price 2s. Vol. IV. 



Part V. ; with Three Plates. September, 1857. Price 3s. 



(Wollaston, T. V.) Revision of the British Atomariae; concluded — p. 81. 

 (Stainton, H. T.) On the recent progress of Micro -lepidopterology on the con- 

 tinent — p. 82-86. (Baly, J. S.) Description of two insects belonging to Pseu- 

 domela, a new genus of Chrysomelidae — p. 87, 88. (Pascoe,F. P.) Onnew Genera 

 and Species of Longicorn Coleoptera; Part II. — p. 89-112. Proceedings from 

 Nov. 3, 1856, to Feb. 2, 1857 ; Anniversary Address of the President — p. 33-56. 

 (Stainton, H. T.) Observations on Genera — p. 113-1 15. The Binomial system 

 of nomenclature, through itsnearlyunanimousadoption by naturalists, sinceLinnseus, 

 has tended to give a factitious importance to the genus, as distinguished from other 

 groups of greater or less contents. This influence may be clearly traced in many 

 of the speculations which have appeared from time to time, touching the limits and 

 number of genera, their existence in nature, &c. We might illustrate this by the 

 notion, very generally entertained, that the common use of the decimal notation 

 implies some peculiar intrinsic fitness of the number 10 to be the basis of arithmetical 

 operations. The real office of the generic name as a help to memory being allowed 

 to fall out of sight, it is no wonder if genera have been often constituted and judged 

 on grounds irreconcileable with that object. How long, in the accelerated progress 

 of the discovery and discrimination of species, it may suffice to employ a single 

 step to clear the proportionally widening interval of analytic propositions succeeding 

 one another between the species and the aggregate of organised nature — that is to 

 say, how long the Binomial nomenclature may continue to satisfy the wants of 

 science — is a question that may soon be pressed irresistibly on the consideration 

 of Naturalists. So long, however, as the generic name is acknowledged as the sole 

 complement of the trivial, the relation of the group selected to bear that name to 

 both ends of the chain will require to be considered. If we rightly apprehend the 

 gist of this article, the writer's inclination is to designate as genus the natural group 

 next above the species. The limitation, which he allows, in the application of this 

 principle, from the discovety of connecting links, seems to be nullified by the sub- 

 sequent admission made of the existence of such intermediate species in relation 

 to all genera. The adoption of genera containing only single species has such an 

 important bearing on the right conception of the characters and the limits of the 

 genus, that it deserved, we think, some more exact investigation than the question 

 has received here. (Smith, F.) Observations on the difficulties attending the 

 discrimination of the species of the genus Stylops ; with a plate — p. 115- 118. The 

 delicate bodies of the insects of this group are so much deformed in drying, that 

 any but recent specimens afford scanty means for the determination of specific 

 characters. Mr. Smith having, in most instances, been able to collate the figures 

 that have been published of the supposed British species, with the original specimens, 

 has found them, with the exception of those given in Curtis' British Entomology, 

 so unsatisfactory that he doubts whether there is any good evidence of the existence 

 of more than one species of Stylops in Britain. Copies of some of these figures are 

 given in the plate, along with some original sketches. (Walker, F.) Characters 

 of undescribed Diptera in the collection of W. W. Saunders, Esq — p. 119-158. 

 This paper, which forms the principal bulk of the present part, contains the de- 

 scription of eighty-two new species of various families, from Stratiomydas to Cono- 

 pid«, and from different parts of the globe. Two new genera of Svrphidae are 

 characterised, Lycastris and Rhoga. Some bibliographic notices are added, and 

 some analytic tables of genera. The summary which Mr. Walker has given in 

 some instances of the geographical distribution would deserve to be carried out 

 more extensively and more in detail. The materials, in collections, for 



