1869.] RITCHIE — COLEOPTERA OF MONTREAL. 27 



over, it is open to a doubt whether a man who starts as a Micro- 

 scopist with a perfect instrument and all accessories, will ever 

 become an accomplished manipulator. His royal road will probably 

 be too easy to call his skill into exercise, and he may be outstript 

 in the race by the student who, with a plain stand and good 

 ghasses, has had to exercise his ingenuity in the illumination of 

 objects with the simple mirror and bull's eye condenser. The 

 pleasure and satisfaction derived from a study of the instrument 

 itself, more than repays the labour expended tiiereon, and is a 

 necessary element in a sound Microscopic education. 



ON THE COLEOPTERA OF THE ISLAND OF 

 MONTREAL. 



By A. S. Ritchie. 



The list of Coleoptera appended to this paper, has involved 

 considerable labour, mostly on account of the bulkiness of the 

 nomenclature, a prevailing fault in this as in most other branches 

 of Natural History. Calling the same species by many names 

 leads to great confusion ; some of these insects have as many as 

 six or seven synonyms. 



I am indebted to Dr. Leconte, and to Dr. Horn, of Philadel- 

 phia, for their very kind assistance in the preparation of this list. 

 Leconte's classification of the beetles of North America is the 

 most authentic known to me for the simple reason that all his 

 species are named from some special characteristic, as, structure, 

 habits, or food, and not on tradition. His classification has there- 

 fore been adopted. The few remarks I propose to make on the 

 Coleoptera of Montreal may be set forth under the heads of 

 Nomenclature, Classification, and general remarks on the several 

 families. 



Nomenclature. — Insects are named from specific or generic 

 characteristics of structure, or colour, from the particular food 

 they live on, or from some other material characters — so that they 

 may be readily identified. The confusion which often arises from 

 so many names, may be illustrated by an example. Olivier finds 

 an insect about the year 1789, and after describing it, calls it 

 Le^tura Vittata ; Kirby finds the same species about 1828, and 



