xlviii 



In the first class must be reckoned our Transactions, of which 

 four parts have been pubhshed in the year, containing twenty-two 

 papers of fully average interest and value, as will be seen by the 

 following classification of them. No less than seventeen consist 

 of descriptions of exotic insects, while only two are devoted to 

 any branch of British Entomology; a proportion which would 

 rather show, that so far from confining ourselves to the restricted 

 field ofi'ered by our own country, we have a deficiency of 

 home students, and are hardly doing so much as might be 

 expected in working out the obscurer groups of our native 

 insects, or in studying their habits, structure and physiology. 

 Five very valuable papers are on subjects connected with classi- 

 fication and nomenclature, while only one is devoted to the 

 economy of insects. Looking at them from another point of 

 view, we find that eleven treat of Coleoptera, eight of Lepidoptera, 

 and three of the other insect Orders. 



One of the most remarkable and valuable contributions to the 

 volume consists of two papers by Mr. Crotch, on the Genera of 

 Coleoptera studied chronologically. They bring to light an amount 

 of confusion and error in generic nomenclature of which I think 

 few persons were aware, and which will perhaps necessitate some 

 combined action to get out of the difficulty ; since entomologists 

 will certainly not agree to the alteration of so many generic 

 names which have become household words, as a strict application 

 of the law of priority would require. Mr. Crotch also makes a 

 suggestion which seems worthy of consideration, namely, — that 

 the best definition of a new genus is not a detailed account of the 

 characters supposed to be essential to it, but the indication of a 

 type species, which is to be the fixed point around which are to 

 be located any other species which sufficiently resemble it. It 

 seems to be undoubtedly the case that the indication of a type is 

 of immense value in permanently determining a genus, which may, 

 with increasing knowledge and materials, be added to or sub- 

 divided without affecting the central fixed point which alone is 

 essential to it, and to which the name is attached. It might 

 therefore be a valuable addition to our laws regulating nomen- 

 clature, if it were determined, that generic names founded on a 

 recognisable tyiJe should, in all cases of doubt or where alterations 

 were proposed, have priority over those founded on characters 

 only. 



