THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



No. 5.] SEPTEMBER, MDCCCLXIV. [Price 6d. 



Analytical Notice of ' A Catalogue of the Coleopterous 

 Insects of the Canaries, in the Collection of the Bri- 

 tish Museum' By T. Vernon Wollaston, M.A., 

 F.L.S. 1864. 



Mr. Wollaston is so favourably known to Entomologists 

 by his varied and valued contribulioiis to the Science, that 

 no encomiums of mine can add a tittle to the fame he has so 

 deservedly acquired. A second observation : although I 

 have, for the sake of uniformity, intituled this brief notice 

 " analytical," it will, I am sure, not be expected that I 

 should minutely analyze a work which treats exclusively of 

 Canarian Coleoptera, in a Journal designed mainly to make 

 known the entomological productions of the British Isles. 

 Lastly, I cannot honestly refrain from expressing the regret I 

 feel that an author so capable of compiling instructive sum- 

 maries and penning logical deductions, should in any instance 

 have left his readers to do this for themselves : there is not 

 only the labour of the task to be considered, but the unsatis- 

 factory character of all conclusions to which the author him- 

 self is not a party. 



The Atlantic Islands to which Mr. Wollaston's researches 

 have latterly been extended are seven in number — Lanza- 

 rote, Fueitaventura, Grand Canary, Teneriffe, Gomera, 

 Palma and Hierro ; and the coleopterous fauna of the whole, 

 so far as ascertained, amounts to 930 species, of which Lan- 

 zarote produces 277, Fuerteventura 201, Grand Canary 325, 

 Tenevitfe 539, Gomera 222, Palma 254, and Hierro 165. 

 The total number of species recorded by Webb and Berthe- 

 lot, whose work contains almost the only previous catalogue 

 of Canarian Coleoptera, is 179; and concerning the authen- 

 ticity of even some of these, grave doubts are entertained by 

 the author, whose great care is shown in the following 

 extracts relating to two of them : — 



VOL. IL E 



