() °40)Rer) 
XIX. Descriptions of New Phytophaga from Western 
Australia. By the Rev. Hamuet Crark, M.A., F.LS. 
{Read Ist May and 5th June, 1865. ] 
In laying before the Society a paper containing descriptions of 
certain new species of Phytophaga from Western Australia, I 
desire to offer a few remarks gn Entomological papers generally 
—their object, their legitimate scope, and their value. 
I will begin with what is a self-evident proposition ; that papers, 
like those which are honoured by a place in our Transactions, 
may be of the greatest importance to the cause of science; or 
they may be to its very serious injury—and this latter even when 
the writers have a real aptitude for and are thoroughly conscien- 
tious in their self-imposed studies. 
Papers are really valuable when—and indeed only to the degree 
to which—the information which they supply (its accuracy, its 
completeness) is sufficient to outweigh the labour that will be 
required on the part of future students in order to obtain access 
to them, and to master their contents; for it is well to remember 
that the author of the most perfect paper in the world is not only 
by writing it undertaking work himself, but he is most certainly 
making future work for others; the more he can save the time of 
others the more useful is his work—the more his paper taxes 
the time of others the less profitable is his work : this simple fact, 
if we admit it, at once suggests one aspect which gives in part the 
measurement of the value of any paper, as an addition to Ento- 
mological literature: its limit and scope should be clear and well 
defined, and within that limit it should be, as far as its subject 
will permit, exhaustive: it may comprehend a genus, or a group 
of genera; or it may comprehend a country or a continent: but 
it should comprehend something, and be limited to something, 
and within that range it should aim at being as perfect as time and 
material will allow. I will grant that there is a great charm in 
being able to wander at will over a vast domain; to describe from 
one continent a beautiful species ; from another continent to seek 
to fix a striking form as a new genus; to travel from one group 
to another—from the old world right across to the new—and all 
within the limits of a few pages! But what infinite labour is all 
