66 



importance); these had heen found dead in eastern maniiscripts, with many living 

 larvae, which from their size might fairly be assumed to he those of this species of 

 Anobium : also a Ptinideous larva, which Mr. Westwood had found gnawing the 

 morocco covers of books in his own library, in the same manner as the Lepidoplerous 

 larva which he had exhibited at a previous meeting of the Society : also a lari^e 

 Ptinideous larva, found within the covers of a Syriac manuscript, which Mr. Westwood 

 considered to be that of Ptinus fur, as dead specimens of that species had also been 

 found in the same collection of books. 



Mr. Smith observed that he had seen the female of Vespa vulgaris on the wing on 

 the 14th of February last, — a proof of the unusual mildness of the season at that 

 period. 



The Secretary read the following communication from Mr. A. R. Wallace, Corre- 

 sponding Member of the Society, dated Batchian, Moluccas, Nov., 1858, intituled 



Remarks on enlarged coloured Figures of Insects. 



" The practice of publishing highly-coloured figures of insects, more especially of 

 Coleoptera, above the natural size, is so very general that I fear I shall stand almost 

 alone in protesting against it. 



"Coloured figures should represent nature in every respect. They should as much 

 as possible take the place of actual specimens, enabling us more readily to determine 

 species than can be done by descriptions, and making us acquainted with the actual 

 appearance of the rare and beautiful forms which are daily being discovered. Insects, 

 it is true, vary very much in size ; yet, as a general rule, magnitude is a great assist- 

 ance, and often an important supplementary character, in determining species. This 

 assistance we altogether lose by enlarging our coloured figures ; for not only does it 

 require time to look for the line of size appended to each, and to consider the eflfect of 

 reducing the insect to that size, but a small and obscure species is often so trans- 

 formed, by all its delicate detail being brought out and exaggerated, that we may 

 pass it over altogether as something we have never seen, although the identical insect 

 may be waiting for its name in our cabinet. The evil is made still greater by no 

 system being followed. In the same plate we have insects figured of the natural size, 

 and others slightly or very much enlarged; so that in some cases the largest figure 

 represents the smallest of the insects. See White's Cat. of Longicorns in B. M. tab. 6, 

 figs. 5 and 9. An instance of the same anomaly occurs also, I believe, in one of the 

 plates of Longicorns illustrating Mr. Pascoe's second paper in the Transactious of the 

 Society. 



" There is also another evil in this unsystematic enlargement of insects, — that we 

 cannot readily check the accuracy of the figures, which must be often very doubtful, 

 as the artist must trust solely to his eyes for the various proportions ; whereas in figures 

 of the natural size a fine "pair of compasses will both give the principal dimensions 

 accurately, and enable any one in a moment to test their accuracy. Now, though 

 size may not be, yet proportion is certainly an excellent specific character ; and it can- 

 not be considered a trifling matter that, by enlarging our figures in no determinate 

 scale, we can no longer use this character with confidence. 



" In turning over good coloured plates of an entomological Monograph or of a local 

 Fauna, we may get at once a mass of useful information. We can compare the 



