208 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



to this insect so far as they go. — McL ), because no specimen from Africa 

 is known to him ; and " that the collection of Linnaeus has been mal- 

 treated by additions, destruction and displacement of labels." The dis- 

 covery of a true African specimen would make McLachlan's objection 

 untenable. Nobody would be surprised that an insect, with such a large 

 distribution, and found in Castilia and Naples, should be found in Africa. 

 For the statement of the displacement of labels in the Linnean collection 

 McLachlan quotes the preface of Staudinger's Catalog der Lepidopteren, 

 187 1, p. xvi.-xvii. This quotation is indeed very unfortunate, as the Ger- 

 man original is essentially different (p. xvi ) from the French translation 

 (p. xvii.) which is alone used by McL.: — " C'est malheuresement un fait 

 certain que l'acquereur de la collection de Linne a eu la deplorable ide'e 

 de remplacer quelquefois des exemplaires endommages par des exem- 

 plaires frais — vielleicht vorhandene schlechte Exemplare durch bessere 

 ersetzte." So long as McLachlan gives not any other evidence for his 

 opinion, it is apparently not admissible. 



Concerning the Neuroptera in the Linn, collection, I have published 

 (Stett. Ent. Z.,vol. vi., 1845, P- : 55) tne ust still before me, made in 1844 

 by Mr. R. Kippist, then Secretary of the Linn. Soc. 



Of the 83 species described in Syst. Nat. Ed., xii.,, were present 50 

 species, but 17 of them were later additions, with labels written not by 

 Linnceus, but probably by Mr. Smith, with the occasional addition 

 " exdescript Linn." These 17 species are marked only with pencil in 

 Linnseus's own copy of Syst. Nat. Ed., xii. The other 33 species have 

 labels in Linnseus's own handwriting, and are marked in the copy of Syst. 

 Nat. Ed., xii., with ink. From these alone it is certain that they were in 

 the collection of Linnaeus, and among these is M. formicalynx. I have 

 compared myself the collection in 1857 and 1861. I found nothing 

 changed and no indication of displacements. 



Illiger's paper, 1 801, in his Magazin, vol. i., p. 7. 



Westwood's paper of the Linnean Staphylinus (Tr. Ent. Soc, Ser. 

 I., vol. iv., p. 45); Schaum " neber zweifelhafte Kaefer Linne''s nach 

 seiner Sammlung," Stett. Ent. Z., 1847, P- 2 7^ ', Haliday ibid., 185 1, p. 

 131 ; Motschulsky, 1855, Etudes. Ent., iv., p. 25, will show that the 

 sweeping charges in McL. paper can not be considered as warranted. 



The description of M. formicalynx in Ed. x. is the same as in Ed. 

 xii., excepting the clerical error " antenna; setaceae " for clavatae, as given in 



