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OBSERVATIONS ON LACORDAIRE'S 

 GENERA DES COLEOPTERES, Tome VI. 



The great work of Lacorclaire, ^' Genera des Coleopteres," 

 is drawing gradually to a conclusion. The last volume, the 

 sixth, treating of a part of the vast family Curculionidce, 

 appeared last year, and, as in many respects this will pro- 

 bably be the most interesting of all to British Entomologists, 

 we purpose to give a sketch of its contents in the '* Annual." 

 The interest attaching to the Curculionid^p in the present 

 work is due not only to the enormous numbers of species* 

 which the family contains, but chiefly to the almost total 

 alteration in the classification which it has undergone at the 

 hands of the celebrated Belgian professor.. Hitherto the 

 method pursued by Schonherr has been felt by almost all who 

 have studied the group to be most unsatisfactory. Starting 

 from the fact that the antennas of the Carciiliouidce are either 

 straight or geniculate, he at once foj-med two primary divi- 

 sions. Into the first of these ( Ortkoreri) many tiue Cur- 

 culionidce, such as Apion, RiujacJiites, Selas, Attelabns, 

 &c., were mixed with the BrucJiidce, JBrentJddcB and 

 Afithribidce, families belonging altogether to other types of 

 form, and which are only to be regarded as allies of the Cur- 

 cidlonid(E. M. Jekel, in his " Insecta Saundersiana," had 



* From 20,000 to 25,000 species are computed by ]\I. Jekel to exist in 

 collections, but then this includes Antkribidce, Brenthida and Braclnda-, 

 \Nhich do not, however, exceed perhaps a couple of thousand altogether. 



