of Lucanoid Coleoptera. 3 
especially to its classification and general arrangement; their 
names, already familiar to the Entomologist, are as follow :— 
Latreille (Cuvier, Régne Animal, iv. 576). 
M‘Leay (Hore Entomologice, i. 195). 
Westwood (Ann. Sci. Nat. Ser. 2, i. 112 (1834); Modern 
Classification of Insects, i. 185; Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. 
iv. 271; N.S. iii, 197). 
Hope (Catalogue of Lucanoid Coleoptera, 1845). 
Burmeister (Handbuch der Entomologie, v. 305, 1847). 
Lacordaire (Genera des Coleoptéres, iii. 1). 
Brullé (Hist. Nat. des Insectes, tom. 3). 
Leconte (Classification of Coleoptera of North America 
(Smithsonian Instit.), p. 120). 
The most important collections of the species of this division 
are to be found in the cabinets of Count Mniszech and Mr. 
Thomson at Paris (the latter especially interesting as including 
the species from the collections of Count Dejean, M. Laferté and 
M. Reiche), in the British Museum, and in the cabinets of the late 
Rev. F. W. Hope (so liberally presented to the University of 
Oxford) and Mr. W. W. Saunders; and, lastly, in my own col- 
lection, which contains, I believe, the largest number of species 
ever brought together. 
With reference to the respective families it is not my intention 
to propose any very great change in the classification; nevertheless 
I feel that much in this respect is still required, but it appears to 
me that the period for such re-organization has not yet arrived, a 
greater knowledge of species being absolutely requisite for under- 
taking such a task. Should our collections continue to be en- 
riched as they have been of recent years, this desirable object 
might then be successfully undertaken, for I am convinced that it 
is only by placing before the eye a sufficient series of the insect. to 
be described (and this is more especially true of the Lucanoid 
Coleoptera) that a just appreciation of its general form and 
character can be arrived at. It is vain to expect to ascertain the 
true characters of a genus until the species shall themselves have 
been properly established; and the development of species so 
peculiar in the Lucanoid Coleoptera has but too often given rise to 
great confusion, specimens having not unfrequently been mistaken 
by Entomologists as the types of distinct species, and described as 
such, when in fact they were but varieties of species previously 
known. As already stated, this, my tribute to the Society, must 
be considered simply as a rectified catalogue, including notices, 
descriptions and figures of various new and interesting species: 
Ba 
