NEW BRITISH SPECIES, ETC., IN 1869. 41 



and in that portion of it periodically devoted to the treatment 

 of scientific subjects, is an ex cathedra statement relative to 

 the Coccinellidcey wherein Entomologists are held up to ridi- 

 cule for splitting those insects into fancied species solely on 

 account of their different numbers of spots ! Such an ab- 

 surdity scarcely merits serious refutation ; but a very little 

 trouble would have shown the writer of that statement that 

 the 41 recorded British species of Coccinellidce, belong, 

 according to the author who has studied them the most, to 

 no less than 23 different genera; and that, of the 24 species 

 popularly recognized as " lady-birds," no less than 19 were 

 founded by Linnasus, who certainly was no ** splitter" of 

 species. It happens that there is only one, C. labilis, con- 

 cerning which even the shade of suspicion can be raised (in 

 my opinion, it is structurally distinct from l-punctata); but 

 the writer has probably been misled by the accident of the 

 trivial names of most of the species having been naturally 

 taken from their most salient superficial feature of diversity 

 in maculation ; — and he would probably expect 19-punctata 

 to be very closely allied to, if not made at the expense of, 

 IS-guttata. 



1. Carabus anglicus, Motschulsky, Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc, 

 xxxviii, (1865) pt. 2, p. 291 ; Dallas, Record Zool. 

 Lit., 1866, p. 299 ; E. C. Rye, Ent, Mo. Mag., v, 

 198. 

 Taken in the environs of London, according to its de- 

 scriber, who states that it has the sculptui-e of C. arvensis, 

 of which he thinks that it cannot be considered a variety. 

 Compared with that species it is said to be much larger, with 

 the thorax equally arched on the sides, and without any 

 sinuosity at the posterior angles ; and the elytra more attenu- 

 ated at the apex, which is very feebly sinuated, and with the 



