in the Catalogue of British Coleoptera. 333 



more on this bead, and there only remain the imperfections of 

 Stephens' definition to be dealt with ; — and here I must express 

 my regret that the author of the paper should have made use of 

 such strong terms in relation to them, when it must be apparent 

 to any one who has paid much attention to the subject that he 

 certainly has not done so. Had the ^leocharidce been studied 

 by Dr. Schaum, it would have been evident to him that it was not 

 merely because Ch. longitarsis was the first species in the genus 

 that it ought to be regarded as the type, but because the charac- 

 ters laid down by Stephens belonged to that species alone. In 

 the period which elapsed between the publication of his "Illustra- 

 tions" and " Manual," Stephens found that nearly all his (or 

 rather Kirby's) sections of the great group Aleochara had been 

 converted into genera. Some kw of these, it is true, had, 

 immediately before the publication of the " Illustrations," been 

 raised to the rank of genera by Mannerheim ; but there was one 

 remarkable exception : his section *' A." was, as it appeared to 

 him, left untouched ; and as the insects standing to represent the 

 species of that section in his cabinet, nearly all of them presented 

 a peculiar aspect, very unlike that of any of the other Aleocharidce 

 which had already found a place under some appropriate generic 

 head, he thought they should also form a genus. He gave a 

 generic name, accompanied by certain characters, which, in Dr. 

 Schaum's opinion, are "an insult to science." We are not favoured 

 with the author's views as to what generic characters should be, 

 but we may presume that the rule laid down by him for specific 

 characters, [viz. " the essential condition to a species being 

 described is this, that (if not all the principal) at least some of its 

 distinctive characters are pointed out, so that some possibility exists 

 of its recognition by another Entomologist,"] may be applied to 

 generic. We will test the characters laid down by Stephens for 

 the genus Ischnopoda by this rule, making no allowance for the 

 plan and nature of the work in which they occur, which rendered 

 it necessary they should be comprised in three or four lines. 

 Stephens says '^ head nearly sessile" (placing the genus, so far as 

 this character is concerned, between those genera in which he 

 gives, as a character, head " exserted," such as Alitalia, Falagria^ 

 Calodera, &c., and those which have the head " sessile," such as 

 Polystoma, Aleochara, p., Zyras, Pella, &c.); " thorax longer than 

 broad ; elytra wide ; body slender ; abdomen acute at tip ; legs 

 slender ; tarsi, especially the hinder pair, long'' (characters common 

 to nearly all the insects standing as species of Ischnopoda in his 

 collection, and belonging to no other section of the Aleocharidce, 



