148 
however, rarely adopted. If time had permitted I should have liked 
also to say a few words on the want of accord in classification: why 
should the section of one be the family of another, or the tribe of a 
third? why should one group be called Carabici, and other groups, of 
corresponding rank, Scaphidilia, or Silphales, or Puiniores, and so on? 
when a uniform termination would at once give us the key to their 
correlatives, and a certainty in their meaning that we do not now 
possess, 
It is scarcely necessary for me to say anything of our Natural His- 
tory periodicals. ‘They are all well known, and the exclusively ento- 
mological are indispensable to your pursuit. The ‘ Zoologist,’ after 
reaching to nearly 10,000 pages, has commenced a new series; while 
the ‘ Natural History Review,’ a high-class biological quarterly, has 
come to an unexpected end. The ‘ Kntomologist’s Annual’ appears 
to be richer than usual in the number of species added to the British 
lists. Of onr own ‘ Transactions’ I shall only allude to Mr. McLach- 
lan’s excellent “ Monograph of the British Caddis-flies,” which I hope 
will be followed by others of our more neglected groups. 
Of foreign publications the most important is the seventh volume 
of Prof. Lacordaire’s ‘ Genera des Coléoptéres. This, the greatest 
entomological work that has ever appeared, is without parallel in zoo- 
logical literature: it stands in the sane rank as Endlicher’s ‘Genera 
Plantarum, or the ‘Genera Plantarum’ of Bentham and Hooker 
in Botany. ‘The present volume concludes the Curculionide and 
families allied to them. I quite agree with the author in considering 
Cossonus and Calandra as belonging to the Curculionide, and no 
more to be separated from them than Brachycerus or Apion. It is 
not so satisfactory to see the Scolytide placed among the Rhyncho- 
phorous groups; with Dr. Gerstaecker and M. Jekel, I should prefer 
to see them excluded. 
The parts of the ‘Genera des Coléoptéres d’Europe’ published 
during the year relate exclusively to the Longicorns, which are divided 
into thirty-six ‘ groupes,” and include several new genera, some of 
which affect the nomenclature of our British species. This magni- 
ficent work is now continued by M. Leon Fairmaire. 
The ‘Systema Cerambycidarum’ of M. James Thomson is an 
indispensable work to all students of the Longicorns, but its useful- 
ness is considerably marred by the intricacy of the classification. 
‘Hemiptera Africana descripsit Carolus Stal’ is a purely descriptive 
work, 
LSS CC ml 
