268' Mr. Kirby and Mr. MacLeay on the larsi of Insects. 



hasten therefore to remove any misconception of this kind, both 

 for his sake and my own ; for nothing was further from my in- 

 tention tlian to attack a friend wlioni I have so long and so 

 highly esteemed, both for his personal qualities, his natural ta- 

 lents, and the extensive range of his learning and knowledge. 



That I could have no such intention will be evident when 

 I state that in the first instance I sent him the substance of 

 the remarks which you have inserted in your Magazine, with 

 the exception of that relating to De Geer, requesting him to 

 put them into any form that might be agreeable to him, and 

 insert them himself; but as it appeared to him that this would 

 be committing himself with the Linneean Society, he declined it. 



With regard to De Geer, I regret exceedingly that I inad- 

 vertently and too hastily assumed that Mr. MacLeay was not 

 aware of his having mentioned and figured the accessory joint 

 at the base of the claw-joint of Coccinella ; an error into which 

 I was led by the mode in which the subject of Mr. MacLeay's 

 paper was stated, and by the circumstance of having myself^ 

 subsequently to my first letter, observed to him that De Geer 

 (of which, as I said, I was not then any more than himself 

 aware) had noticed the joint in question. 



I hope this will be deemed in some degree an extenuation of 

 my error in building upon a foundation apparently so slight. 



I must here also observe, that De Geer invariably looked 

 upon Coccinella as being trimerotis, as appears in almost every 

 passage in which he has mentioned it, and in the explanation 

 of this very plate ; so that he regarded this not as a jiriviai-y 

 but as a secondary joint, or the joint of a joint, as I am dis- 

 posed to do myself; and therefore in the Introduction to En- 

 tomology, and upon other occasions, 1 speak of the Chysomelidce, 

 &c. as tetravierous, and the Coccinellidcc as trimerous. 



I also regret, when I said that the third volume of the work 

 just alluded to had been " some time printed," that I did not 

 add, " but not yet published." But since this last fact ap- 

 peared to me to be universally known, it did not occur to me 

 that this was necessary. It has, however, been observed to 

 me, that some readers of your Magazine may possibly not 

 have been aware of this circumstance. To do away any im- 

 pression that may have thus been produced, I beg leave to 

 state that Mr. MacLeay has never seen that part of my work 

 in which the observations on the tarsi of tetramerous and tri- 

 merous insects copied in your Magazine are contained, and 

 that I beheve him incapable of knowingly appropriating to 

 himself tiie honour that belongs to another. 



I am, dear sir, yours, &c. 



Wm, KlUBY. 



