Mr. A. Murray on Coleoptera from Old Calahar. 431 



to undertake the examination and description of the new spe- 

 cies belonging to it, I entrusted my specimens of them to him 

 for that pui-pose. His other engagements, however, have as 

 yet prevented his carrying out his intention ; and, after wait- 

 ing for some time, I have come to the conclusion to postpone 

 the Lamellicoms, and proceed at once with some other group, 

 trusting that M. Candeze may be able to overtake them before 

 I have done. Should he not, I shall then take them myself. I 

 tlierefore now proceed with the Longicoms, which I take after 

 the Buprestidge, in preference to any other, on the strength of 

 the general resemblance which the larvaj of these groups have 

 to each other. In a list of this kind it matters little in what 

 order the different larger groups are taken ; each of them 

 makes a little independent chapter by itself. 



In the arrangement of the Longicoms I have, of course, 

 followed the steps of Prof. Lacordaire in the main ; but in a 

 number of minor details I have ventured to deviate from 

 them ; and I do so now more than I have done hitherto, because 

 it appears to me that the learned Professor has in none of his 

 previous volumes sacrificed natural affinit)- to facility of refer- 

 ence so much as in the Longicoms. In his last volumes he 

 frequently acknowledges the artificial character of much of his 

 arrangement. Xow the natural relations are precisely the 

 ver}- thing that I am most anxious to elucidate in these papers. 

 Throughout I have written them with one eye on the beetles 

 themselves, and the other on their geographical distribution 

 and their relations to the beetles of other countries. It 

 would therefore be to stultify myself, and sacrifice one of the 

 principal aims which I have in view in these descriptions, 

 Avere I to bend to the greater authority of M. Lacordaire, and 

 foUow him in details of arrangement which are acknowledged 

 by himself, or patent to all, to be inconsistent with the true 

 natural affinities of the species themselves. The great defer- 

 ence which is legitimately due, and which all entomologists 

 must delight to pay, to the author of that wonderful work the 

 ' Genera des Coleopteres,' forbids my acting in contradiction 

 to his -vnews without first making this apology. 



The greater number of my Old-Calabar Longicoms have 

 been already described in Guerin's ' Ee\-ue et ^Magasin de 

 Zoologie,' by my friend M. Che-vTolat, who was kind enough 

 to undertake that task years ago at my request. A reference 

 to his descriptions would therefore, strictly speaking, be enough; 

 but those who may use this list will probably be glad to have 

 brought to their hand a summary of the characters of at least 

 those species which were new. 



