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XVII. Notices rcspectmg Netv Books. 



Entomographia Rtithenica. 



Ti/TANY distinguislied naturalists, such as Pallas, Marscliall, 

 ^^^ de Bieberstein, Steven, Sevevguine, Adams, and others, 

 have been, of late years, engaged in investigating the natural 

 history of that immense tract of country which forms the over- 

 grown empire of Russia. With the exception, howevei", of 

 Pallas in his Icones^ scarcely any one had hitherto attempted 

 to make knowai the entomological treasures necessarily con- 

 tamed in a territory which may almost be said to border on the 

 Adantic and Pacific Oceans, and to extend from the Tropics 

 to the Pole. 



This task has been at last undertaken by die celebrated zoolo- 

 gist, Fischer, counsellor of state, and director of the Imperial 

 Society of Natural History of Moscow; and die part of it which 

 he has executed, and which has only now reached England, is 

 such as might have been expected of his well-known talents and 

 industry. 



Some critics may, perhaps, object to the work, the almost 

 total want of method which it displays, and which appears to 

 have been preferred merely for the sake of more conveniently 

 and speedily describing those interesting species which have 

 been lately added to oui- catalogues, by Steven, Henning, 

 Escholtz, Gebler, Besser, and others. How far this motive 

 vi'ill excuse the learned Audior in the eyes of English Entomo- 

 logists, we shall not presume to inquire; but the scientific ac- 

 curacy with which a number of new s})ecies ai-e described, and 

 the inimitable beauty of the figures which accompany the de- 

 scriptions, together with the quantity of interesting matter 

 which die book oUierwise contains, must infallibly give it a 

 place among the most valuable works which have of late years 

 appeared on a science, which, as yielding in interest to no 

 branch of Natural History, is daily gaining more and more ad- 

 mirers. 



This first volume is divided into two parts, one of which re- 

 lates to Russian Entomology, and the other to Entomology in 

 general. This last promises to be a very complete Genera In- 

 sectonm arranged after the artificial system of Latreille. As 

 yet, however, it is confined to die limits of the Linna^an genus 

 Cicmdela, and conseciuciitly is much interfered with by tlie late 

 work published in France* by MM. Latreille and Dejeau. 



Of the Russian insects described, the reader will find al- 

 most every species new to him. I'here are also fourteen new 

 genera describetl and figured, of which one {Caris) belongs to 

 the Cicindelida-; four, viz. Plrclca, CW/irmis, Callisthe7jes, 



Avomcrus, 



