33 



count of the number of individual species, which is considerable, but also on account 

 of several new forms ; some of them connecting tribes, before placed far asunder, and 

 filling up many vacant places in a scientific arrangement of these animals ; others 

 exhibiting an eastern aspect, and the majority representing, as it were, known Euro- 

 pean types, and, though varying from them in characters of more or less importance, 

 known European species : so that the American entomologists, for want of comparing 

 one with the other, appear often to have confounded them.'' These insects were col- 

 lected during the brief summers of the Arctic Regions, and Mr. Kirby has added to 

 them descriptions of other species in his own collection, from Canada and Nova Scotia. 

 In the introduction, Mr. Kirby notices the difficulties attending the primary distribu- 

 tion of the Coleoptera according to the views of Latreille, MacLeay and Stephens, 

 and adds a tabular view of an arrangement of his own, in which the order is divided 

 into thirteen primary groups of equal value (the majority of which are subdivided into 

 other groups 'of minor value). These groups are, 1. Adephaga ; 2. Brachelytra; 

 3. Entaphia (consisting of the single genus Necrophorus) ; 4. Necrophaga ; 5. Phil- 

 hydrida ; 6. Lamellicornia ; 7. Sternoxa ; 8. Xylophaga (including the Xylophaga 

 of Latreille, as well as the Ptini and Longicornia) ; 9. Rhynchouhora ; 10. Phyto- 

 phaga; 11. Aphidiphaga ; 12. Heteromera ; 13. Malacoderma. Descriptions are 

 given of 343 Coleoptera; 3 0rthoptera; 2Neuroptera; 2 Trichoptera ; 32 Hyme- 

 noptera ; 17 Hemiptera; 1 Homoptera; 32 Lepidoptera ; 15 Diptera. A List is also 

 added of 103 other insects of the northern parts of America, described by Otho 

 Fabricius, Curtis, Children and himself, in other works. 



September 2, 1850. 

 J. F. Stephens, Esq., V. P., in the chair. 



The following donations were announced, and thanks ordered to be given to the 

 donors: the 'Zoologist' for August and September; by the Editor. The 'Transac- 

 tions of the Royal Society, 1848,' parts 1 and 2 ; 1849, parts 1 and 2 : 1850, part 1 ; 

 List of Members, 1849, and Proceedings, No. 70 to 74 ; by the Royal Society. ' En- 

 tomologische Zeitung,' for June and July ; by the Entomological Society of Stettin. 

 'Bulletin de la Societe Imperiale des Naturalistes de Moscow,' 1847, Nos. 3 and 4 ; 

 1848, Nos. 1 to 4 ; 1849, Nos. 1 to 3. 'Specimen Fauns Subterraneae ;' by J. C. 

 Schiodte, Copenhagen, 1849 ; and ' Om en afvigende Slsgt af Spindlernes Orden,' 

 by J. C. Schiodte ; both presented by the author. ' A Letter to Lord Brougham 

 on the Scientific Exploration of Egypt and Ethiopia,' by John James Wild, Civil 

 Engineer of Zurich ; by the author. Specimens, male and female, of Raphiglossa 

 Eumenoides and R. Odyneroides, and a male of Myrmosa nigriceps ; by S. S. Saun- 

 ders, Esq. These insects were described in a memoir read on the 3rd of July last. 



Mr. Shepherd exhibited specimens of Rhodaria sanguinalis taken at New 

 Brighton, by Mr. C. S. Gregson ; also some black varieties of Elachista Linneella, 

 taken near London. 



Mr. S. Stevens exhibited a male and female of a beautiful variety of Ornithoptera 



E 



