■>! 



THE AiNNALS 



AND 



MAGAZLNE OF NATURAL HISTOEY. 



[EIGHTH SERIES.] 



No. 116. AUGUST 1917. 



XIT. — A Systematic Revision of the African Species of the 



Coleopterous Family Erotylidae. By Gilbert J. Arrow. 



(Published b\' permission of the Trustees of the British Museum.) 



Having been asked by Professor Thaxter, of Harvard, to 

 determine for him several species of African Erotylidse npon 

 ■which he lias discovered parasitic growths of Laboulbeuiaceaej 

 two of the hosts being here described as new species, it has 

 become necessary to look closely into the comparative cha- 

 racters of the recognized genera. This has revealed a state 

 of confusion in the nomenclature which^ so long as it remains, 

 renders the description of additional species a positive dis- 

 service to systematic entomology, as increasing the difficulties 

 of those who come after. In naming these new forms I have 

 therefore felt myself under the obligation of attempting to 

 bring into some better order the genera concerned. The 

 recent work upon the group contributed by Kuhnt to Wyts- 

 man^s 'Genera Insectorum^ fails in any way to dissipate 

 the prevailing confusion. In his tables of genera sections 

 are actually made to which no characters of any kind are 

 assigned, the supposed geographical range of the genera 

 being substituted. It is evident that the materials upon 

 which the work is based were altogether inadequate for the 

 ptirpose ; but it is difficult to understand what value exists 

 in compilations produced under such conditions. 



Kuhnt has catalogued seventy-four African species under 

 fifteen generic names ; but seven of the latter names prove 

 Ann. (Sc Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 8. Vol. xx. 10 



