AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 437 



have described them. I have scrupulously [3] retained all the 

 specific names, which have been given by the late Rev. F. V. 

 Melsheimer, in his Catalogue of the insects of Pennsylvania ; ex- 

 cepting only such as have been previously employed in the same 

 genera by other entomologists ; and so far as I could ascertain 

 them by the aid of the scientific intelligence of his son the Rev. 

 J. F. Melsheimer, who has liberally furnished me with specimens 

 from his collection. I am also indebted to Mr. Thomas Nuttall, 

 who has confided to my care his entire collection, with permis- 

 sion to avail myself of the opportunity of describing such of them 

 as are new. 



I have not thought it necessary to draw out the generic de- 

 scriptions at length, as this has already been done with sufficient 

 detail by Professor Bonelli of Turin ; whose excellent papers I 

 have not yet had the good fortune to peruse. If, in the descrip- 

 tion of some of the species, I have been anticipated by the labors 

 of this, or any author, I shall immediately relinquish my claim?, 

 and do justice to the real discoverers, when their labors shall 

 meet my eye. 



To the inflexible Linnsean entomologist, who may object to the 

 numerous genera which are here adopted, I will merely observe, 

 that each of those divisions which are here called families, he 

 may regard as only genera, (as they coincide with those of Lin- 

 naeus,) and to each of the species described he may add the char- 

 acters of those divisions which are, in this essay, called genera ; 

 thus the system as it stands, complicated as it is by the vast 

 accession of discoveries of recent date, will aflbrd him every fa- 

 cility, which he might suppose to result from a scrupulous adhe- 

 rence to the Linnaean method. 



The modern entomologist will readily perceive that I have not 

 adopted all the genera of M. Bonelli, but that many of these are 

 included under the genus Feronia of Latreille. In this respect 

 I had no option ; having no definitions of such genera, with the 

 exception of those contained in the Regno Animal, many of 

 which are too brief to be exclusively relied upon. 



1823.] 



