INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 



The present volume contains part of the first two divisions of the 

 group of Halticid^e, proposed by Illiger (Mag. fur Insekt., Sechster 

 Band, 1807), and consists of a classification and descriptions not 

 only of the species of the section that are contained in the British 

 Museum, but also of those existing in the cabinets of MM. Chev- 

 rolat, Deyrolle, Dohrn, and Lacordaire, as well as of Messrs. Baly, 

 Bates, Fry, J. Gray, Miers, Murray, "Waterhouse, and my own. The 

 great kindness and liberality of these gentlemen has enabled me 

 to describe in the present volume forty- two genera, consisting of 

 245 species. 



With regard to the geographical stations of these species, one only 

 is known from the kingdom of Chili ; 136 are found in the regions 

 of Brazil south of the Amazon (6 of these are insular, one being from 

 the Island of St. Catherine, and 5 from the Island of St. Paul) ; 65 

 are found in the basin of the River Amazon (between the Delta and 

 Peru), while the part of the continent north of the Amazon Basin 

 furnishes 27 (of which the district round Cayenne supplies 11, 

 Venezuela 6, New Granada 4, and Columbia 6). Six species are found 

 in Mexico and the south of North America, one insular species 

 (JEdmon sencellum) being indigenous to Porto Pico. In addition to 

 these, 3 species are found in other countries of North America — one in 

 Pennsylvania, and 2 in Philadelphia. Three species only are found 

 in Africa — one (Eutornus Africanus) at Sierra Leone, one (-?%- 

 sonychis smaragdina) in Senegal, and a third (Lithonoma Africana) 

 near Tangiers ; two only are found in Europe (Lithonoma cincta, 



