Ixxiii 



the valleys of the Rio Grande and Gila on the north, British 

 Honduras, the States of Guatemala, Honduras, San Salvador, 

 Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, and Panama as far south as the 

 Istlniius of Darien. For this work the editors have been quali- 

 fying themselves by collecting materials for the last twenty-two 

 years ; the}^ have passed several years in various parts of the 

 country, and have received collections from many correspondents 

 and from naturalists speciall}^ employed in visiting some of the 

 districts previously unexplored. A work of such magnitude can 

 only be achieved by co-operation ; as regards our branch of 

 Zoology, the editors themselves will undertake the Rhopalocerous 

 Lepidoptera, and (whilst the Crustacea are allocated to Prof. 

 Huxley, the Arachnida to the Rev. 0. Pickard Cambridge, and 

 the Hymenoptera and Diptera are still waiting for collaborateurs) 

 the names of Messrs. Bates, Distant, Druce, Gorliam, Janson, 

 M'Lachlan, Sharp, Waterhouse, and Wood-Mason will commend 

 the work to this Society. The two parts published in September 

 and November last contain portions of the Lepidoptera Rhopalocera 

 [Nymphalidce, Danaiiue) by Messrs. Godman and Salvin, and of 

 the Coleoptera Longicornia {Prionidce and Ceramhijciclce) by Mr. 

 H. W. Bates. It is a grand design which promises to be grandly 

 executed, and when completed in accordance with the promise of 

 its outset, I have no hesitation in sajdng that the ' Biologia 

 Centrali-Americana ' will be one of the noblest faunistic works 

 which this or any other country has produced. 



The publications of our sister societies have not been without 

 entomological contributions. I have already alluded to the 

 ' Account of the Petrological, Botanical, and Zoological Col- 

 lections made in Kerguelen's Land and Rodriguez during the 

 Transit of Venus Expeditions carried out b}^ order of Her 

 Majesty's Government in the years 1874-5,' which has recently 

 appeared under the auspices of the Royal Society, It will . be 

 remembered that our colleague, the Rev. A. E. Eaton, who had 

 already visited the Arctic Regions, was selected as the naturalist of 

 the Expedition to Kerguelen's Land; and he, with the assistance 

 of Messrs. Cambridge, Verrall, C. 0. Waterhouse, and Sir J. 

 Lubbock, has rendered an account of the entomological results 

 of his Antarctic Expedition ; whilst the corresponding work for 

 the Expedition to Rodriguez has been done by Messrs. Butler, 

 F. Smith, and C. 0. Waterhouse. In the Transactions of the 



