VALEDICIORY ADDRTSS. 



Exotic Hemiptera ; by Mr, Shuckard, on British Fossorial 

 Hymenoptera ; and by Mr. Westwood, on the Modern Classi- 

 fication of Insects. To each of these I must devote a few 

 lines. We have also in prospect a general work on British 

 Genera of Insects, by Mr. Shuckard ; and a work on British 

 Bees, by the same gentleman ; both of which are to appear 

 before the end of the present year. 



I do not think Mr. Kirby's work on the Insects of Canada*^ 

 at all likely to extend the fame of that celebrated author. 

 Numerous new families are named, but not described, and 

 seem formed on the mere spur of the occasion, without any 

 rational ground, or any apparent object, except that of giving 

 paternity to a name. I moreover observe that many well- 

 known insects, and amongst them the large North American 

 Tricliii, and several Melolothidce, are re-described as new. 

 On the other hand, hosts of European species are given as 

 Canadian, without doubt or hesitation, without even a com- 

 parison of their characters. The technical terms are angli- 

 cized after the barbarous manner of the French, but with a 

 still greater violation of scientific usages : thus, ants are called 

 Formicidans ; wasps, Vespidans, &c. It gives me pain to 

 condemn any thing from the pen of so honoured an author as 

 Kirby ; but I speak now as an individual commenting without 

 fear or favour on what is going on around him ; and justice 

 compels me to say that I consider the work throughout charac- 

 terized by a morbid taste for name-giving, and by a care- 

 lessness perfectly unaccountable. 



Mr. MacLeay's work on the Insects of South Africa^ is 

 not more in accordance with modern views of precision and 

 accuracy. I find in this work an equal lack of care, and the 

 same overweening propensity to the giving of names ; several even 

 of the figured species have been previously named ;^ and I must 



« Fauna Borcali- Americana, by John Richardson, M.D. Part IV. and last. The 

 Insects by the Rev. William Kirby. Fletcher, Norwich: Longman, London. 1837. 



'' Illustrations of the Annulosa of South Africa, collocted during an expedition 

 into the interior, under the direction of Dr. Andrew Smith. By W. S. MacLeay, 

 Esq. London : Smith & Elder. 1838. 



6 111 a plate of Cetoniidai five out of six are vo- christened. 



