( Ixxxiii ) 



very difficult matter to search tlirougli the hterature of tlid 

 subject, increased, according to Dr. Sharp's estimate, by 

 20,000 pages annually, to determine which of the unnamed 

 specimens is or is not already described, and rightly to 

 classify the novelties under some recognised system, especially 

 in certain branches of the subject is which no really satis- 

 factory system has yet been generally accepted. 



If he would avoid mistakes and re-descriptions of already 

 known species, a lepidopterist must read, not only separate 

 works, but innumerable periodicals and transactions and 

 proceedings of learned societies, published in seven or more 

 different languages. How is he to find time, in the face of 

 all his other work, to master the details of the 78 new 

 genera and 655 new species (exclusive of synonyms), of 

 Australian (EcoplwridcB, which Mr. Meyrick has added within 

 the last five or six years to the previously described three 

 genera and 100 species known to other authors. Yet if a box 

 of undetermined OEcophoridce comes to hand (and personally I 

 confess to a cowardly inclination to "climb down" when I get 

 such a box), that is what he is at once called upon to do. No 

 doubt, if he had sufficient leisure for study, such work would 

 greatly ease his task, but how is he to find this time and still 

 attend to his other duties ? The smaller species of Cole- 

 optera, as well as Lepidoptera, of tropical countries, have 

 been scarcely at all touched up to the present time ; their 

 number is legion, and when these come to hand, nine-tenths 

 of them are usually found to be new and undescribed, 

 involving great difficulties in generic classification. 



My object is to point out that the existing means of carry- 

 ing on systematic entomological work in our one great public 

 centre of special knowledge, is by no means equal to the 

 present demand. The authors of the ' Biology of Central 

 America ' have already employed no less than ten specialists 

 on Coleoptera alone, — three on Lepidoptera, including them- 

 selves, and three on Diptera, in all 22 entomologists, — with 

 every probability of adding to their number before the work 

 can be completed ; seven only have been employed on all other 

 branches of terrestrial Zoology, and two on Botany, whereas, 

 as I have shown, the Entomology of the whole world, as well 



