34 COLEOPTERA. 



presume, on account of the existence of another and still 

 earlier corticalis (Phlceopora) in the Aleocharid^e. 



But tliat portion of the past year's work most interesting 

 10 us, and to which I can draw attention with the most satis- 

 faction, is the completion and publication (in the " Trans- 

 actions of the Entomological Society," 1869, Parts ii & iii) 

 by Dr. Sharp of his Monograph of the British species of 

 Homalota. T can personally bear witness to its author's 

 unwearied attention, ready courtesy and acute observation, 

 and bis patient investigation of an enormous amount of mate- 

 rial (in good condition or otherwise) both Bi'itish and Con- 

 tinental. 



According to Gemminger and von Harold's General 

 Catalogue before mentioned, there are 412 species described 

 in this genus from all parts of the world (and, of course, in 

 very many cases, mere names of double em.ploi) ; de Marseul 

 (1866) gives 252 for his extended notion of the European 

 range, and Stein (1868), of more recent date, but with a more 

 limited area, enumerates 232, many species in both of their 

 lists being mere names. The British species must, then, 

 be considered as above the average in number; seeing that 

 Dr. Sharp's labours have raised them to the goodly sum of 

 157 (all certainly distinct) from the 89 of Mr. Waterhouse's 

 last Catalogue (from which two are to be deducted, one 

 being inserted by a typographical error, and another not re- 

 presented by any known British specimen). About two dozen 

 species have been added to our list between the publications 

 of that Catalogue and Dr. Sharp's Monograpb, in which no 

 less than 30 species are considered as previously undescribed 

 (five of which represent species in Wat. Cat., and two are 

 queried as possibly identical with insects already brought for- 

 ward by continental authors), and about a score of others, 

 already described, are added to our list, one of them probably 



