216 Rev. H. Clark on the Dytiscidee 
be traced in the rounded form of the apex of the elytra: im one ex- 
ample there is a minute trace of a dentation at the end of the mar- 
gination : in all examples the apices closely approach each other. 
I have some doubts as to whether this species more truly belongs 
to this genus or to Gyrinus; it partakes of the characters of both. 
I decide to admit it on the ground that ZL. oblongus is admitted, the 
length of the anterior tibize of which corresponds with that of those 
of this species. 
Moreton Bay is the only locality at present recorded. In the 
collections of Mr. Bakewell and the Rev. Hamlet Clark. 
B. Elytris striatis. 
a. Elytrorum apicibus rotundatis. 
2. EL. Reichii, Aubé, Species Gén. 654 (1838). 
I subjoin the diagnosis of this species, inasmuch as M. Aube’s de- 
scription (though amply sufficient in 1838, when the only species 
with which it could be contrasted was £. oblongus, Boisd.) will in no 
degree separate it from the species which have in late years been sent 
home by collectors. I take the liberty of asking our modernized—and 
in good truth somewhat revolutionary—entomological friends, who 
seek to rebel against the time-honoured laws of priority of nomencla- 
ture, whether I am not justified in retaining the name of this species, 
though with a confessedly imperfect description ; or whether, on the . 
other hand, it would be lawful for me to sweep away a tradition, and 
discard a name given by M. Aubé, merely because it does not satisfy 
their self-imposed postulate. Most truly, M. Aubé’s definition of 
the species has not sufficiently discriminated between it and all other 
cognate species which then remained to be discovered! It is even 
to us, in these days of the infancy of entomology, insufficient ; nay 
more, there are grounds for the assertion by any critic that the de- 
scription (with its accompanying French amplification) is in itself 
imperfect! but surely this gives me no right whatever to alter the 
name according to my own will. Science is not a series of brilliant 
revolutions; it consists rather of quiet and commonplace progress : 
it is conservative, not despotic. To change the name before us would 
(notwithstanding the crotchets of our friends) not only be to be want- 
ing in justice and in courtesy to the respected founder of the present 
name, but it would infallibly secure the reversion of the decision of 
this paper by future students of the group. 
The following description, amended from Aubé, will suffice to sepa- 
rate the species from all others known up to this time :— 
