ON THE NOMENCLATURE OF BRITISH CARABID.E. 121 



one has ever been able to recognize from the description, has 

 no greater claim to priority than a manuscript-name. 



Calathus nubigena, Haliclay. — I consider it a black variety 

 of melanocephalus. It is very common in Iceland, where 

 intermediate shades are not wanting. 



Anchomentts junceus, Scop. {angusticoUis, Fab.) ; dor- 

 salis, Mull, (prasinus, Fab.); Icevis, Mull, (parumpunc- 

 tatus, Fab.); Amara orichalcica, Mull, (bifrons, Gyll.) ; 

 Zabrus pi get', Fourcr. (gibbus, Fab.) — I am much opposed 

 to the adoption of these obsolete names, which Mr. Dawson 

 has substituted for the well known and generally adopted 

 appellations in parenthesi, in right of priority. Such a right 

 can be admitted only when it can be proved to evidence, that 

 the species in question were indeed those described by the 

 old authors (Scopoli, Muller, Fourcroy) ; this, however, 

 cannot be done either by their descriptions, or by types 

 actually existing (except perhaps as regards Anch. dorsalis, 

 Mull.) : the determination of them is based solely on Schbn- 

 herr's " Synonymia Insectorum," which in such cases is by no 

 means a sufficient warrant; they may refer to the supposed 

 species, but Car. junceus, Scop., may be equally well Nebria 

 Gyllenhalii, — Buprestris pigra, Foucr., equally well a black 

 Harpalus. Car. Icevis, Mull., is even positively not A. 

 parumpunctatus, for Muller described the latter under the 

 name of Car. Q-punctatus {vide Schiodte Danm. Eleuth.). 

 Fourcroy's book, in which the author does not even adopt 

 the Linnean genera (he calls Carabus JBuprestis), is a very 

 poor pamphlet, written without pretension and exclusively 

 intended for tyros and boys. Such a book has no scien- 

 tific claim whatever; no greater claim than a mere catologue, 

 for it does not describe insects, but merely gives a notice of 

 them in three or four words. If we cultivate Entomology 



