424 Mr. D. Sharp on the 



the work, 1 have drawn up a table which wull, I hope, facili- 

 tate the preliminary determination of the species ; and in this 

 table I have also indicated what appears to me at present to be 

 the most convenient grouping or synthesis of the species. 



Previous to the researches of the last few years only two 

 species of this family had been described from New Zealand, 

 viz. Anthrihus incertus^ White, and A. phymatodes^ Redt, 

 White's species, 1 believe, is not among those I am acquainted 

 with ; and his description offers as striking an example as could 

 well be pointed out of the use of hastily selected and indefinite 

 terms for what purports to be a scientific description. 



Redtenbacher's description of A. phymatodes, on the other 

 hand, is a very good one ; but yet 1 have some little doubts 

 whether the species to wliich I have given that name be really 

 the one intended by the talented Austrian entomologist (the 

 sad news of whose death has reached me while writing these 

 lines) ; for his description indicates a rather larger insect, and 

 one having a more uneven surface of the thorax than the spe- 

 cimens before me. 



Three species of the family have been previously described 

 by myself, two of them with the generic name Laxosonia^ which 

 Mr. Pascoe, who is a great authority on this family, states to 

 be synonymous Avith his ExilUs, Lacordaire having assigned 

 that genus an erroneous position as regards one of its im- 

 portant and easily seen structural characters. I do not on this 

 account consider it necessary to change at present the names 

 of my two sjDecies ; but in case it should be ultimately con- 

 sidered that this should be done, I will take the opportunity to 

 propose the name of Exillis Lawsoni in place of that of Law- 

 sonia hngicarnis used in the present paper. 



Mr. Pascoe himself has recently described a species of the 

 family ; and as he has kindly sent me a type thereof, I am 

 certainly right as to the insect to which I apply his name. 



I acknowledge with great pleasure the kindness of Capt. 

 T. Broun, of Tairua, and Mr. T. Lawson, of Auckland, wha 

 have collected the insects here described. Each of these ento- 

 mologists has discovered so many interesting and unexpected 

 additions to the New-Zealand insect-fauna that it is to be hoped 

 they will continue their researches, and so acquire for us a 

 knowledge of many species which, if not speedily accumulated, 

 will become extinct, as has already, indeed, been the case with 

 many species of some other insular faunas, as well as with 

 some of the most interesting of the larger components of the 

 New-Zealand fauna. 



