FAMILY SPH ROMIDA. Ppl 
me—as loan or present—with a good number of forms, for 
which I am most grateful. [have drawn more than a hundred 
figures, but seeing that further material must be procured, 
and that for this reason and other obligations, years must 
pass away before I can finish a more detailed paper, I think 
a preliminary abstract of the main results, together with brief 
diagnoses of the genera, and notes on reference of species, 
may be useful to my fellow-students. Nearly every year 
new species are described and new genera established; the 
latter are, in most cases, imperfectly defined, and the species 
are frequently referred to genera to which they do not belong, 
Though most preliminary communications—to put it very 
mildly—contribute more to the swelling of the literature than 
to advancement of science, I hope yet that this paper may be 
considered by zoologists as an exception from the rule. 
During the preparation of this paper I received further aid 
from other sides. From the authorities of the Zoological 
Museum in Berlin I obtained some forms of much interest ; 
Professor HE. L. Bouvier, Director of the Hntomological 
Department of the Museum in Paris, lent me an important 
typical specimen; Mr. A. Viré, the ardent explorer of the cave- 
fauna in France, has presented me with two valuable forms ; 
Dr. Joh. Thiele, at the Berlin Museum, and especially my 
friend Dr. W. T. Calman, at the British Museum, answered 
queries on certain structural features in various animals. I 
beg the authorities of the Zoological Museums in London, 
Washington, Berlin, and all the gentlemen named, to accept 
my sincere thanks for their aid. 
The number of forms seen by me is very large. T'wenty- 
eight genera (not counting mere synonyms) have been esiab- 
lished by earlier authors; of these I have been able to 
examine material preserved in spirit of all but three; of one 
(Ancinus) of these three I saw an exsiccated specimen, and 
the two genera not seen by me seem to be of slight import- 
ance. That I have seen numerous new species is a matter of 
course ; many of them have been inspected, but not being 
able to give illustrations here, I establish as few as possible, 
