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XIII. Monograph of the Family of Nitidularie. By ANDREW Murray, Esq., F. L.S. 
Part I. 
(Plates XXXII.-XXXV.) 
Read April 2nd, 1863. 
INTRODUCTION. 
IT is now some years since I agreed, at the request of Dr. Gray of the British Museum, 
to prepare a catalogue of the Nitidularie in the Museum, for the purpose of publication 
as one of the Museum Catalogues. 
It was not without hesitation that I undertook the task. The catalogues published 
by that establishment had been gradually assuming the character of monographs, 
embracing not only the actual contents of the Museum collection, with descriptions of 
the new species in it, but also of its desiderata. I therefore felt that, if I undertook 
the task of arranging and cataloguing the Nitidularie in the Museum, I was, in fact, 
undertaking to write a monograph of that family. And this I knew to be no easy task, 
“no journey of a sabbath day "—loaded especially as I was with numerous other occu- 
pations. It implied the microscopic dissection of the parts of many hundred specimens, 
and the making of careful drawings of these dissections—a work rendered doubly difficult 
and laborious by the minute size of the insects to be examined. I knew, too, that its 
results would bear no proportion to the labour bestowed upon it; and what was perhaps 
more discouraging, I felt that after it was done there were few from whom I could 
expect an intelligent appreciation of my work. 
Still the subject was not without its attractions. It was allied to one (the genus 
Catops) which I had already monographed. It possessed a special interest from its well- 
defined character, its affinities with other groups, and the variety of form and structure 
in its genera. 
Influenced by such considerations, I accepted Dr. Gray’s invitation. I soon found, 
however, that the mere preparation for the work would take a long time. The collection 
of Nitidularie in the British Museum, although large, had great blanks which required 
to be filled up. The verification of the ‘different types described by previous authors 
entailed a vast amount of correspondence and the necessity of personally visiting the 
great museums in the different capitals of Europe. The subsequent examination of the 
materials begged or borrowed from all quarters took up years. And when at last my 
work began to assume a shape fitted for the printer, other engagements entered into by 
the British Museum, which had precedence of mine, prevented its being then sent to 
press. On my part other duties by-and-by took up the whole of my time and made me 
look upon the delay, if not with satisfaction, at least without regret; and it was only in 
the course of the present winter, when I began again to have a little leisure, that, 
