67 



Mr. Janson exhibited specimens of Bledius unicornis, Germar, from the collections 

 of Messrs. Parfitt and Wollaston, and read the following notes : — 



" I beg to exhibit Bledius hispidus, Parfitt (Zool. 5409), the pair from which Mr. 

 Parfitt drew up his description, and which he has obligingly transmitted me for exa- 

 mination. This is the insect alluded to by Mr. Westwood at the October Meeting of 

 the Society ; and I must express my regret and surprise that tbe information supplied 

 by Mr. Westwood should have induced Mr. Parfitt to describe it as a new species, 

 when it has been well figured, some thirty years since, by Germar in * Fauna Insecto- 

 rum Europae,' fas. xii. tab. 3, and unraistakeably described by Dr. Erichson in his 

 ' Genera et Species Staphylinorum,' both of which standard works doubtless grace the 

 shelves of Mr. Westwood's splendid entomological library. Complaint is frequently 

 made that the entomologists of this country, satisfied with determining their insects 

 from named collections, never or seldom refer to books, and that thus error is perpe- 

 tuated. But if those occupying the foremost rank in our Science, with every facility 

 at their command, eviuce such manifest disinclination to consult books, what can be 

 expected of those who are deprived of these facilities? I would enjoin, at all events, 

 those who, prefixing an asterisk to their names in the authorized ' List of Entomolo- 

 gists,' proclaim themselves teachers, to bear steadfastly in mind the hackneyed adage, 

 ' Example is better than precept.' 



" I may perhaps be permitted to adduce the present insect as a proof of the disin- 

 clination to furnish, if not actual disposition to conceal, that information which all 

 must be very well aware is of primary importance to the successful accomplishment of 

 the task which I have undertaken, of drawing up a Synonymic List of the British Co- 

 Icoptera, and which, I regret to state, has been most unmistakeably evinced by those 

 who were most clamorous for the publication of that List, the most invective at the 

 delay in its appearance, and, above all, by those who had promised me their hearty 

 and unreserved co-operation, for which I pledged myself they should have at least the 

 full share of credit, and, failing which, I should certainly not have entered on that 

 arduous, and, I must admit, now odious, task. Of the insect now exhibited Mr. Par- 

 Alt captured five individuals, of which he presented three to London entomologists; 

 yet when preparing my notice of new species for this year's ' Annual ' I was unable to 

 ascertain anything relative to the ' new British Bledius ;' and had not Mr. Parfitt 

 consented to commit his only pair (and which, as the types of his description, were 

 very valuable to him) to the ruthless custody of the post-office, I should not even now 

 have been able to bring under your notice the following illustration of the fate which 

 appears to be the almost inevitable attendant on the ascertained indigenousness of a 

 species, namely, condemnation to trail evermore behind it an unsightly, trouble-giving 

 train of synonyms. The nomenclature of the present insect will now stand thus: — 



Bledius unicornis, Germar^ Erichson, Gen. et Spec. Staph, vii. 764, 7 (1840). 

 Oxytelus unicornis, Germar, Fauna Insect. JEurop. fas. xii. f. 3 (1828). 

 Bledius hispidus, Parfitt, Zoologist, 5409 (1857). 

 Bledius cornulus, F. Smith, in litteris. 



Hence it is seen that a species universally recognised abroad during upwards of a 

 quarter of a century, well figured and adu)irably described, is no sooner found in Bri- 

 tain than, in a few short weeks, it is shackled with two synonyms, — a fact which cer- 

 tainly reflects no credit on the entomologists of this country, and which cannot tend 



I * 



