NEW BRITISH SPECIES, ETC., IN 1868. 9 



vents me from giving a goodly list ; though the hot summer 

 resulted in anything but favourable conditions for the Cole- 

 opterist, for whom are no flocks of DapUdice, Laihonia, or 

 even Hyale. 



In the pages of the " Annuals " will no longer be found 

 the accustomed notices of captures of rare Coleoptera by 

 Charles Turner, who, to the detriment of our collections, 

 died during the past year, and with whom probably (as far 

 as we are concerned) died very many of the species he used 

 to take. Our readers will require no reminder of the nume- 

 rous good things (chiefly wood-feeding beetles) that have 

 for some years past been discovered by him, for the insects 

 he specially affected were of comparatively large size and 

 belonged to groups of which none but the commonest forms 

 are to be obtained by ordinary collecting. But only those 

 who, like myself, have heard from the inhabitants of the 

 distant localities in which he worked, accounts of his ways 

 and means, and have seen his colossal ravages in situ, can 

 be aware of the hardships and toil he endured in the pursuit 

 of these good things. There can be no doubt that he pos- 

 sessed strong determination and perseverance, ability to work 

 very hard under very discouraging circumstances, an ex- 

 tremely quick eye and retentive memory (which enabled 

 him to profit by the instructions of the " book-learned," for 

 whom, however, he in unguarded moments expressed a co- 

 pious contempt), great natural shrewdness, and a power of 

 concealing his innate artful nature beneath an apparent 

 frankness of manner. For, to use the mildest language, his 

 natural mental bias was very distinctly in an oblique direc- 

 tion. But for this, he would have been supported to any 

 extent by his patrons, whom, in spite of repeated condone- 

 ments, he perpetually again deceived. I suppose it will 

 never now be known how many actual specimens of his 



