" their various Walloon dialects, and lie finished by seeking a like number of German 

 " words in the town of Avion. Thoroughly convinced of having a good thousand 

 " words of a supposed Belgian language, he published his vocabulary, forming, one 

 " can well understand, most charming nonsense. You young entomologists who 

 " form Belgian collections only, do work which, in the eyes of science, has about as 

 " miich value as the whimsical compilation of the foreigner of our apologue." The 

 same charge cannot be laid against 'British' entomologists with equal force on account 

 of oiu- geographical position, and they may take comfort in the knowledge that they 

 do not altogether pursue a phantom. But in sober earnestness we ask what it is 

 that makes (say) Argynnis Lathonia taken at Dover worth a pound, but only worth 

 sixpence if taken at Calais ? That the species does sometimes occur in Britain needs 

 no confirmation, so the artificial value cannot be caused because a new fact is estab- 

 lished ; and we think no one has pretended that there is any varietal difference 

 between Dover and Calais examples, hence no new scientific information is adduced 

 to warrant the discrepancy. However, the condition exists, and we have no objec- 

 tion to receive a British Lathonia and place it in our collection for purely financial 

 reasons ; but we decline to incur the expense of going to Dover on chance of obtaining 

 that from which we can get an equal amount of scientific knowledge for sixpence ! 



NOTES ON RETEROMERA, AND DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW GENEEA 

 AND SPECIES (No. 9). 



BT F. BATES. 

 ToXICTjM PICTICOLLE, Sp. 11. 



$ . Elongate, cylindric ; head, antennje, legs, and under-side deep black, shining ; 

 prothorax and elytra deep velvety-black ; the sides of the former occupied by a 

 j large, deep red, lunate spot ; head covered with rounded punctui-es ; labrum promi- 

 nent, slightly rounded in front ; lateral margins of head sinuous ; front and vertex 

 strongly concave ; epistoma transversely convex, projecting beyond the sides of the 

 front, its apex broadly, and slightly arcuately, emarginate ; eyes completely, but 

 very narrowly, divided, the upper portion nearly as large as the under ; at the inner 

 margin of each eye arises a rather short, robust, blunt, conical hoim, slightly divergent 

 at apex, and sloping a little forwards ; antcniiiB with a strongly expanded, flattened 

 club, of three transverse joints : joint 9 longer than 10, cupulifonn ; 11 smaller than 

 10, rounded at apex ; prothoi-ax sub-quadrate, wider than long, sides a little incurved, 

 nt apex, finely, and not closely, punctxu-ed ; elytra elongate, cylindric, finely seriate- 

 punctate ; prothoracic flanks and sterna closely studded with large, rounded punctures. 



? . Head less deeply concave above, lateral margins less strongly sinuous, the 

 lioriis reduced to tubercles ; and the sides of the prothorax more broadly red. 



Length, 4j — dj lin. ; width of elytra, 1 J lin. 



Hah. : Xew Guiuea; two examples {(^ aud $ ). 



Tlie existence in Australia of species of Toxicum having but tLrec 

 joints to tlie club of the antenna, and of others wherein it is scarcely 

 possible to decide whether it has three or four joints, has broken 

 down the barrier that separated Toxicum from AnthracUis. The 



