278 1. October, 



of hastily describing as a new species an insect tliat the author has seen but a single 

 example of, possessing no local knowledge of the fauna ■whence it is derived, is much 

 to be deprecated." There is much good common sense shown in the Preface. 

 Appended to the Catalogue is a Label List, " on one side only." Entomology is 

 evidently progressing by rapid strides in our Australian Colonies, and nothing will 

 tend to further it better than good faunistic Catalogues. 



#bituarn. 



Edward Wesley Janson, F.E.S., died at his residence at Stroud Green, N., on 

 September 14th, aged 69. For more than a year he had suffered from a painful and 

 incurable internal malady, and had latterly been confined to his house. His family 

 was of Dutch extraction, and his father was for a long time London Agent of the 

 Dutch-Rhenish Railway Company, and in his office we believe the son acquired those 

 precise business habits which were a feature in his character. He early showed a 

 taste for entomology, and in 1843 joined the Entomological Society of London. At 

 that time the Society possessed a collection, and in 1850 Mr. Janson was appointed 

 Curator, and continued as such down to 1863. The Society's Collection was sold in 

 1863, and thenceforth the Curator became Librarian — a post held by Mr. Janson 

 till 1874. He was one of the Secretaries from 1857 to 1861. Most unfortunately 

 for himself and for the Society his peculiar temperament led to a serious split 

 in the Society in 1862. All this time Mr. Janson was diligently collecting and 

 studying the British Coleoptera, and did much and undoubtedly good work in 

 an Order that was then comparatively little known, and to which the only guide 

 was Stephens' " Manual." He went the right way to work, and entered into 

 correspondence with the leading Continental authorities on Coleoptera, thereby 

 clearing up many doubtful points, and adding largely to the number of known 

 British species. He was a frequent contributor to the " Entomologist's Weekly 

 Intelligencer," &c., and from 1855 to 1861 furnished the chapter on British 

 Coleoptera to the " Jllntomologist's Annual." Here again his temperament unfor- 

 tunately brought him into violent contact with his fellow workers, for our Coleopterists 

 in those days were by no means a happy family. Subsequently Mr. Janson estab- 

 lished himself as a Natural History Agent and Bookseller, and acquired a considei'able 

 business, in which he is succeeded by his surviving son Oliver, who is also favourably 

 known as a writer on CetoniidcB. Mr. Janson amassed a very large library, not only in 

 the way of business, but also as a bibliophile, and he is believed to have possessed 

 one of the finest collections of ElateridcB ever brought together, but he made but 

 little use of it as a writer. As a Natural History Agent he did much, and often 

 for the mere love of the thing, to enrich the collections of many of our prominent 

 entomologists ; the amiable side of his character strongly and favourably exhibited 

 itself with the mellowness of age, and his death, under peculiarly painful circum- 

 stances, will be deeply regretted. In addition to his contributions to serials, Mr. 

 Janson edited the Coleopterous portion of a new edition of Curtis' " British 

 Entomology." 



Birmingham Entomological Society : Aug. 17fh, 1891. — Mi-. R. C. Bradley 

 in the Chair. 



Mr. G. W. Wynn showed bred series of Bomhyx ruhi and B. quercus from 

 Sutton, a single specimen of Choerocampa porcellus taken at Sutton last June, a 



