432 Analytical Notices of Books. 



the able author of this excellent work, an impulse which is 

 likely to rescue it from the comparative neglect which it has 

 hitherto experienced. Few, even among Entomologists, were 

 probably aware, before the commencement of M. Meigen's pub- 

 lication, of the vast numerical extent of this order, which appears 

 to be little inferior to that of the Coleopiera, the Lepidopiera^ or 

 the Ilijmenoptera. Before any of these it will now rank in point 

 of facility of discovering and naming the species which may be 

 collected ; for none of them has yet found a historian so zealous 

 and persevering as M. Meigeii, in the description of those insects 

 to which he has especially devoted fiimself. Some idea of the 

 number of species already described by him may be obtained from 

 those contained in the present volume, which amount to upwards 

 of six hundred. In their arrangement he introduces many new 

 genera, the characters of which are admirably developed, but 

 for these we must refer to the work itself, in which types of 

 every genus are figured, together with dissections of them, and 

 with examples of each of the sections into which it is necessary 

 to divide the more extensive of them. In the genus Tachina for 

 instance, of which no less than three hundred and fifteen species 

 are described, four principal sections are established, which are 

 again divided and subdivided, so as to reduce them into small 

 groups, convenient for the speedy determination of the indivi- 

 duals. The specific characters are given in Latin, the descrip- 

 tions alone being in the German language. 



It is natural to anticipate that with the assistance afforded by 

 this useful production, which will probably be completed in two 

 more volumes, the Diptera will form a favourite study of the 

 British Entomologist. In the work of M. Meigen he will find 

 described more than three-fourths of our native species, a pro- 

 portion far exceeding that of any other order of Insects to be 

 met with in a single publication, or even hitherto perhaps at all 

 published. 



