THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[SECOND SERIES.] 

 No. 68. AUGUST 1853. 



VIII . — On the Gentis Cercyon, with a short Monographical 

 Synopsis of the British Sphseridiidse. By Andrew Murray, 

 W.S. Edinburgh*. 



[With a Plate.] 



This is one of those genera of Coleoptera which have always 

 been a stumbling-block to British entomologists. 



The large number of species described by Kirby and Stephens, 

 coupled with the shortness of their descriptions given by Stephens, 

 have led to a confusion which is almost inextricable. With the 

 exception of one or two of the most marked species, scarcely any 

 two collections have the same species under the same name, and 

 in attempting to find representatives for so many, one species is 

 necessarily made to play many parts. After a recent fruitless 

 endeavour to collate and reconcile the British and continental 

 names, I was about to give up the attempt in despair, and to 

 abandon the British names altogether, and confine myself to 

 those of Mulsant, Heer, and other continental authors, when my 

 friend the Rev. William Little kindly submitted the whole of 

 his Cercyons to me for examination ; and as his species had all 

 been named by Mr. Stephens himself, I had the means (second 

 only to an examination of the original specimens from which the 

 species had been described) of reconciling the synonymy of the 

 British and foreign authors. The distance of my place of resi- 

 dence from London rendered it impossible for me to avail myself 

 with effect of the well-known liberality with which Mr. Stephens 

 gave access to his cabinet ; but even although I had had time to 

 examine his specimens minutely, the examination would not have 

 been absolutely satisfactory, because many of the species de- 

 scribed by him were first named by Kirby, and the types ft-om 

 which Kirby's species were named are not to be distinguished 



* Read at the Royal Physical Society, Edinburgh, 1852. 

 Ann. i^ Mag. N. Hist. Ser.2. Vol.xii.' 6 



