152 NEW WORKS ON ENTOMOLOGY. 



containing 548 pages, comprises the families Paussides, Staphyli- 

 niens, Pselaphiens, Scydmenides, Silphales, Spheriens, Trychop- 

 terygiens, Scaphidides, Histeriens, Phalacrides, Nitidulaires, Trogo- 

 sitaires, Colydiens, Rhysodides, Cucujites, Cryptophagides, Latri- 

 diens, Mycetophagides, Thorictides, Dermestins, Byrrhiens, Geo- 

 ryssiens, Parnides and Heterocerides. The third volume comprises 

 only the two great groups Lucanides and Lamellicornes. And 

 the fourth volume, which is considerably advanced, will contain 

 the Serricornes, Malacodermes, Lymexylonides, Ptiniores, and pro- 

 bably the Melasomes. 



" Those who are at all acquainted with the advance of Entomo- 

 logical literature during the last thirty or forty years must be well 

 aware to what a vast extent the study of the Coleoptera has 

 been carried in comparison with that of any other order of insect ; 

 and at the same time how great an amount of labour must be re- 

 quired in order to bring into one focus the numbers of Genera 

 which have been described during the period by authors who have 

 profited by the Transactions of Societies and the various periodical 

 publications devoted not only to Natural History but to Science in 

 general, in order to give to the world from time to time descriptions 

 of a few species or genera, instead of following the plan of the old 

 authors, and waiting until they had severally amassed materials 

 for a weighty folio or quarto. Ten years ago Erichson enumerated 

 5,180 genera of Coleoptera ; to these we may add at least 820 

 others as omissions or subsequent creations, giving not fewer than 

 6,000 genera of beetles ! 



" With such a mass of materials before him, the plan which M. 

 Lacordaire has adopted appears to be the most satisfactory which 

 could have been chosen. Instead of following in the steps of his 

 predecessors in the volumes of the ' Suites a Buffbn,' who have 

 not only re-described the previously characterized genera, but have 

 also established numerous new ones, as well as numbers of new 

 species, our author has considered that the science rather needed 

 a strict revision of the already existing materials scattered in so 

 many quarters, in order, as he well says, ' de voir oil elle en est, 

 pour me servir d'une expression vulgaire.' The result has been 

 the production of a work which, although it will extend at least to 

 five or six thick octavo volumes, will be only a Genera Coleopte- 

 rorum, without the creation of a single new genus, the description 

 of a single species, or the introduction of extended details of ana- 

 tomy, economy and habits ; although the author had made large 

 collections of observations on these branches of the subject, which 

 he has been compelled to suppress. 



" A short but excellent introduction furnishes us with the views of 

 the author upon the general classification of the Coleoptera, and 

 their distribution into families 5 in which he gives due honour to 



