25 



peared in one of the supplementary memoirs appended to the • Histoire naturelle 

 des Fourmis,' published at Paris in 1802, the same year in which the 'Monographia 

 Apum Angliae' was published. To show that these two authors worked independently 

 of each other, and that by following Truth as their guide they arrived, to a remarkable 

 extent, at a similar result, it will be sufficient to refer to the remarks subsequently 

 published by Latreille, in the third volume of his ' Histoire naturelle des Crustaces 

 et des Insectes,' pp. 369 — 371, and by Kirby in the ' Linnean Transactions,' ix. p. 2. 

 The recognition of each other's merits by these two " heroes scientice," at a time when 

 England and France were engaged in deadly strife, is one of the most graceful tes- 

 timonies to the tranquillising power of the study of nature which can well be con- 

 ceived. 



A condensed sketch of this work appeared in ' Illiger's Magazine,' vol. v. p. 28. 

 1806. 



The fourteen plates of the first volume of this work were etched by Mr. Kirby him- 

 self, who had already in his paper on Ammophila, exercised his skill in this direction. 

 The plates of the second volume were, I believe, engraved by Sowerby. 



10. 'The genus Apion of Herbst's Natursystem considered, its characters laid 



down, and many of the species described.' Linn. Trans, ix. pp. 1 — 80. 

 Read June 4th, 1805. 



In the introductory observations, Mr. Kirby discusses at some length the various 

 modes of distribution proposed for grouping or dividing the great Linnaean genus, 

 Curculio, and adopts Herbst's genus Apion, of which he gives long descriptive " es- 

 sential," "artificial" and " natural " characters ; followed by descriptions, after the 

 manner of the ' Monographia Apum Angliae,' of the sixty species with which he was 

 then acquainted, including several Swedish species which he had received from Major 

 Gyllenhal. In this memoir, the great benefits resulting from the possession of 

 the Linnaean cabinet of insects in this country were also exemplified, in the accurate 

 determination and detailed descriptions of several of the Linnaean species. Of the 

 sixty species described in this monograph, not fewer than twenty-eight were new, ex- 

 clusive of the splendid Apion Limonii, described in the Addendum at the end of the 

 memoir, and figures of twenty of the species were given in the accompanying plate. 



11. ' Descriptions of Seven New Species of Apion.' Linn. Trans, x. pp. 347 — 



354. Read Dec. 5, 1809. 

 ' Additional Observations.' Id., pp. 354 — 357. 



We here find the first notice of ' an intended Introduction to Entomology,' by Mr. 

 Kirby and his" learned and very ingenious friend and coadjutor, William Spence, Esq., 

 F.L.S., whose eye nothing escapes, and who directed my attention to the trochanters 

 (for, by this name, in the work above alluded to, we have agreed to distinguish what I 

 formerly called the second or femoral joint of the apophysis), in Apion, as differently 

 circumstanced from those of other Coleopterous genera." This peculiarity is then de- 

 scribed, and in the additional remarks on the previously described species, attention 

 is paid to the characters afforded by these basal parts of the legs. 



12. ' Strepsiptera, a new order of Insects proposed; and the characters of the 



order, with those of its genera laid down.' Linn. Trans, xi. pp. 86 — 122. 

 Read March 19th, 1811. 

 This is one of the most remarkable memoirs ever published. Mr. Kirby himself 



D 



