JOURNAL OF VARIATION. 



Vol. XXII. No. 1. Januaby 15th, 1910. 



Retrospect of a Coleopterist for 1909. 



By (rrof.) T. HUDSON BEARE, B.Sc, F.E.S.E., F.E.S. 



The additions to onr list which I had the pleasure of recording last 

 year \Yere more numerous than they had l)een for many years. In view 

 of this, one might expect that there would be a lull in the outburst of 

 activity this year, but the following records will show that the output 

 of the present year has been quite equal to that of the precedmg one. 

 It will be necessary, therefore, for me to condense the remarks I have 

 to make in regard to the various additions which are to be chronicled. 

 A few general remarks must be made, however, before I begin to 

 record the various additions. First of all, it is necessary to point out 

 that no fewer than seven of this year's additions are new to science ; 

 moreover, we have, for the first time for many years, to note the 

 addition of a new Buprestid to our scanty list of insects belonging to 

 this family. In regard to some of this year's additions, there will be 

 differences of opinion. We have undoubtedly entered upon an era of 

 " species-splitting," if I may use such an expression. With our 

 present scanty knowledge of the life-history of the majority of beetles, 

 this creation of new species, based generally upon obscure structural 

 differences, differences moreover which are, as a rule, only comparative, 

 is in my view of little real service to science. It is to be observed that 

 this splitting into species is resorted to only in the case of insects 

 which are so minute that they have to be examined under a fairly high- 

 power microscope before the supposed structural differences can be 

 detected; in the case of insects of comparatively large bulk, differences 

 far more easily observable are either never noticed, or, if they are noted, 

 no one dreams of proposing to divide into different species insects 

 showing such differences. 



Laccobiiis avutellarU, Motsch. — Introduced by Dr. Sharp, ]'!nt. Mo. 

 Mai/., xlv., p. 217. A specimen was taken at Chobham as far back as 

 1878 b}^ Mr. Champion, and Dr. Sharp has himself recently captured 

 specimens at Brockenhurst ; it is most nearly allied to siniiatus, 

 Motsch., but is much darker in colour. 



Anacaena ovata, Reiche. — Mr. J. Edwards says [lor. <it.,i^. 1G9) that 

 he can satisfactorily separate the insects so far known as limbata, F., 

 into two distinct forms, and the lighter in colour of these two forms is 

 the above species. In the latest European Catalogue, and by 

 Ganglbauer, ovata is considered a synonym of Umhata. The whole 

 question turns upon what constitutes a claim to specific rank. 



