428 Mr. T. Vernon Wollaston on the 



ticularly extensive have been carefully overhauled, for 

 amongst the Cossoni, for instance, a very large number 

 have passed under my eye ; but since I am not desirous 

 of undertaking to determine critically their exact specific 

 titles (which would be rather the work of a separate 

 monograph), I have thought it safer to leave them un- 

 noticed in my general list, lest a possible misquotation of 

 the names might result in confusion as regards the nomen- 

 clature. 



To those Coleopterists who have granted me the loan of 

 their specimens, in this somewhat difficult task, I would 

 desire to return my warmest thanks. To Mr. Pascoe 

 and Mr. Fry my acknowledgments are especially due, 

 both of whom have, with characteristic liberality, placed 

 their large and valuable Cossonideous collections at my 

 entire disposal. It is indeed to the former that I am in- 

 debted for many of the most remarkable types which I 

 have been thus enabled to examine, his series including, 

 in addition to some curious modifications from Australia, 

 a large proportion of the species which were obtained by 

 Mr. Wallace in the islands of the Malayan Archipelago ; 

 whilst the rich material of Mr. Fry in the number of its 

 South- American forms stands probably unrivalled. To 

 Mr. Janson also I must express my peculiar obligations, 

 the whole of his examples having been generously entrusted 

 to me without reserve ; and my worthy friend John Gray, 

 Esq., and Dr. Sharp have likewise afforded much valuable 

 aid in communicating all the members of the family that 

 they respectively possess. The former in fact owns the 

 most complete set of European Cossonids with which I am 

 acquainted; whilst the latter has contributed, amongst 

 numerous other genera (many of which had been trans- 

 mitted, lately, by Mr. Lawson, from New Zealand), the 

 very rare and minute Alaocyba carinulata of Mediter- 

 ranean latitudes. M. Roelofs, also, of Brussels, has had 

 the kindness to send for inspection his unique type of the 

 Georrliynclius Mortctii, from Monte Video ; and I need 

 not here allude again to the interesting material, amassed 

 in Japan, of which Mr. G. Lewis has granted me the 

 loan, it having formed the subject for a separate enume- 

 ration in a late Number of the Entomological Society's 

 Transactions. 



As regards the method of arrangement, it has been my 

 endeavour to arrive, so far as is possible, at a natural one. 

 Had I been content to adopt a purely artificial plan, the 



