[Frofji the Jouhnal op Entomology, No. VII., 1808.] 



ON 

 CERTAIN ADDITIONS TO THE GENUS DICRANOCEPHALUS. 



AND 



NOTICES 



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NEW OR LITTLE-KNOWN GENERA AND SPECIES 



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COLEOPTERA. 



BY 

 FRANCIS P. PASCOE, F.L.S., «&(;. 



On certahi additiotis to the Gemis Dicranocephalus. 

 The reality of the existence of species has been (jnestioned by many 

 naturalists ; not, however, in the Darwinian sense — that is, that as 

 all organic beings have descended from " some one primordial form," 

 they only differ from each other in degree, and, therefore, that 

 classes, orders, families, genera, and species only exist as artificial 

 combinations, — but in the sense of " special creations," and the im- 

 possibility of draTsang any satisfactory line between species and 

 varieties. 



The disbeliever in the material existence of species, however, need 

 not abandon the use of the term : as Agassiz has remarked, " species 

 exist as categories of thought, in the same way as genera, families," 

 &c. ; and the only difference between a species and a variety appears 

 to be, that in the first the distinctive characters are more important 

 or more numerous than in the second, and are not bridged over by 

 intermediate gradations, as is frequently obser\^ed in the variety. 

 Latterly the word subspecies has been adopted to express a grade be- 

 tween species and variety, but at the same time it has been generally 

 connected with, or assumed to be limited to, a certain geographical 

 area. As I take it, the subspecies being dependent for its differential 

 characters on physical, perhaps combined with other causes, and those 

 causes being removed, it would return sooner or later to the normal 

 condition of the species from which it had originally been derived. 

 The species of many genera are, however, so homomorphous, as often 

 to suggest the idea of their having had a common parentage ; and no 

 doubt it AviU be found to be so in many cases where their describcrs 



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