7b COLEOPTERA. 



willing to make use of them ; had he done so he would not 

 have had occasion to place queries before so many species, of 

 which several are easy to determine. 



Let the first instance in the genus Homalota (wherein the 

 notes of interrogation placed before Stephensian species are 

 very numerous) be taken as an example, viz., H. vicina. 



Has Mr. Crotch placed this insect, with a prefixed query, 

 as a synonym of H. umhonataf Erichs. (to which it is con- 

 fessedly anterior in date), because, after using his best powers 

 of investigation upon the descriptions in Stephens' Illustra- 

 tions and Manual, he is not satisfied that both names refer to 

 the some species ? 



Passing over the additional evidence of the types in the 

 Stephensian Collection, which any one can examine, is not 

 even the following abbreviated description in the Manual 

 (p. 360), combined with the sectional characters given by 

 Stephens, sufficient for identification ? 



2807. Shining hlackj smooth, disc of elytra, tihice and 

 tarsi reddish ; antennce with terminal joint elongate ; 

 male with a dorsal tubercle on the second segment of the 

 abdomen, penultimate segment thicklg punctured,female 

 srnooth ; length one line and a half. 



Of the enormous number of species known of this genus 

 I am confident there is but this one to which the above 

 description could possibly apply ; and Mr. Crotch pays his 

 own powers of discernment a very poor compliment by con- 

 fessing, as he does, that he cannot make out his insect by it. 

 Others, however, have taken the trouble to make these inves- 

 tigations, and have satisfied themselves of the soundness of 

 the evidence that can be adduced, before bringing forward 

 and supporting the Stephensian names (amongst others), but 

 the publication of fifty catalogues adopting foreign names 



