28 MATERIALS TOWARDS A HISTORY 



I have followed Dejcan's Catalogue throughout, on account of its extent, and the num- 

 ber of North American species noted in it. Unfortunately its author thought it sufficient 

 to catalogue a species to secure the citation of it; an assumption which, if allowed, will 

 require the presence of an American entomologist in Paris (or wherever a catalogue 

 might be published,) hefore he dare name the insects of his own country. But besides 

 the inability of the world at large to know to what object a mere catalogue name refers, 

 there might be an occasional risk of a species already described appearing under a new 

 name, and of this name being afterwards appropriated to a really new species subsequently 

 described by another author. Moreover, the specimens themselves might be exchanged 

 <<v displaced, as M. Deshayes asserts to have been the case with Lamarck's shells, of 

 which the labels in this author's own handwriting have ceased to be the best evidence.* 

 Under such circumstances, it becomes impossible that the great body of entomologists 

 should admit the authority of an onerous law, which must place the descriptive portion of 

 the science in the hands of a few, whilst the great majority are converted into mere col- 

 lectors. Count Dejean does not, in fact, follow his own rule of catalogue priority, many 

 .North American Coleoptera having been previously known in Germany, through Profes- 

 sor Knoch, and the Reverend F. V. Melsheimer, in whose catalogue they were named 

 and published, but not characterised, in the year ISOG. It is probable that the names 

 given to our insects by Knoch arc better known here through the entomologists of Ger- 

 man descent, than those of Dejean; and as they have the priority, and the insects them- 

 selvcs are, in many instances, preserved in a national museum,t I have preferred them. 



For most of the references to Dejean's Catalogue I am indebted to the kindness of 

 Major John Le Conte, and his son. Dr. John L. Le Conte, from whom that author 

 received many of our species; these gentlemen having placed their collection and draw- 

 ings^ at my disposal. The Melsheimer collection was opened to me with equal liberality, 

 by its present possessor, Dr. F. E. Melsheimer. I have, by these means, been enabled to 

 establish a pretty full concordance between Dejean, Say, and Melsheimer; and also 

 between them and the older authors. 



The southern localities are mostly due to Professor N. M. Hentz, from whom I received 

 a collection several years ago. Some of these were numbered in accordance with the 

 collection of the Boston Society of Natural History, which has enabled me to make an 

 occasional reference to that collection.^ 



[n the preparation of this paper it was necessary to consult various authorities, and 

 these 1 have generally cited at length, that those who feel inclined to traverse the same 

 Held may be .-pared the trouble of collecting and arranging this portion of the materials. 



Des envois considerables ayant ete adresses an Museum, on s'emprcssa de les mettre en ordre, et on rejeta 

 lous les individus de 1'ancienne collection qui pouvaient etre rem places par do plus beaux; on ne lit malheureuse- 

 ment pas attention que les cartons sur lesquels ils ctaient fixes, poitaient le nom specitiquc ecrii de la main de 

 Lamarck, ot qu'en les fitant ou perdait In moyen do verifier a I'avenir la validite des cspeccs etablies dans ces 

 genres difficiles par ce grand naturalist. — Laniard.-, VI., 527. Dcsh. note. 



\ That ol Berlin, which contains Knoch's collection, including many North American species received through 

 lb' ( Uler Melsheimer. 



$ I have admitted several of Dejcan's species into my list on the strength of these drawings, adding the size; 

 and, in a lew instances, I have added such characters as they appeared to justify. 



j This collection, as I have been informed, has been almost entirely destroyed; and that of Say lias shared a 

 similar fate. 



