1910]. 69 



Some considerations ijulicative of the need for a fresh catalogue of British 

 Colcoi-itera. — If the British Neva-opterist, Hymenopterist. or Hemipterist wishes 

 to find out what has been published, in this country or abroad, about any 

 particular object of his study he may tiu-n to the appropriate section of the 

 " General Catalogue of the Insects of the British Isles " published from time to 

 time by the Entomological Society of London, with a reasonable prospect of 

 finding a reference to the original description, together with such additional 

 references as were in the judgment of the several compilers germane to the 

 issue from the point of view of the British student. Similar particulars are 

 also available to the Orthopterist and Lepidopterist in the admirable " Synopsis 

 of the British Orthoptera," by Eland Shaw (Ent. Mo. Mag., vol. xxv, p. 354, 

 et seq.) and Mr. Tutt's colossal "Natural History of the British Lepidoptera" 

 respectively; but the student of British beetles has no siich advantage; not 

 that there is any lack of " Catalogues," the wi-iter calls to mind at least eleven, 

 from Stephens, 1829, to Beare and Donisthorpe, 1904 ; but the first of these is 

 the only one which professes to be more than a list of names, and it is, in the 

 nature of things, of very limited utility at the present day. But by far the 

 most poignant instance of the necessity for some trustworthy guide to the 

 literatm-e of Coleoptera is ftu-nished by Professor T. Hudson Beare, who, in a 

 paragraph dealing exclusively with British beetles (Ent. Rec, xxii, p. 1, Jan. 

 loth, 1910) writes of " our present scanty knowledge of the life-history of the 

 majority of beetles." This extraordinary statement proceeds, be it observed, not 

 from some obscure provincial student, whose lack of information might be 

 exctised, but from a " leading Coleopterist " (I quote from Ent. Rec, xxi, 

 p. 190) and a Vice-President of oiu- National Entomological Society ! Now, if 

 there had existed a catalogue of British Coleoptera on the lines of the " Cata- 

 logue of British Neuroptera," it wotdd of necessity contain references to the 

 writings of those Entomologists who have dealt with life-histories of beetles, 

 from Greoffroy, 1762, to Donisthorpe, 1909, writings which require for their 

 eniuneration more than six hundi-ed octavo pages (Eupertsberger, 1880, 1894), 

 and the passage in question need not have been written. 



That it is, in some sense, a duty on the part of our National Entomological 

 Society to provide British Entomologists with a real catalogue of the insects of 

 ^he British Islands, seems to have been recognised by the executive of that body 

 more tha,n forty years ago, and for a few years after the appearance of the 

 first Part in 1870 the publication went on at a reasonable rate, biit I am not 

 aware that any Part has appeared since 1876. However, it is, doubtless, only 

 necessary to call attention to the matter and the subject will receive the 

 consideration which it deserves. 



It seems matter for regret that, so far as beetles are concerned, the question 

 of naming varieties, i.e., groups of individuals occupying a position interme- 

 diate between the individual and the species, has not received more attention 

 in this country. The history of many species cannot well be wi-itten without 

 i-eference to these things, and it would appear that the most convenient 

 means of making such reference is by name. The latter has been the opinion 

 of several authors of repute, thoiigh they have not always been quite logical in 

 their application of the principle; e.g., Weise in dealing with Coccinella lO-j^unc- 



