202 



duty on the part of every describer to facilitate, in every possible way, 

 the discrimination of his species. 



The Parts pubhshed are the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth of the 

 first volume of the Third Series of »ur ' Transactions.' Part 5 con- 

 tains a paper by the Rev. Hamlet Clark on Haliplidse and Hydropo- 

 ridae, all being eastern Asiatic species, and many of great rarity. 

 Professor Westwood has contributed the next paper ; it is a descrip- 

 tion of Lucanidae, and is amply illustrated by figures and dissections ; 

 the observations and references appended to the species may serve as 

 a model to us all of the way in which descriptive papers should be 

 elucidated. It would be difficult to over-estimate the value of the 

 paper entitled "A few Remarks on Mr. James Thomson's Catalogue 

 of the Lucanidae," by Major Parry. It is well known to many of us 

 that the Lucanidae have been the particular object of the author's 

 study for several years past; possessing a splendid collection him- 

 self, and being well acquainted with the principal collections of 

 Europe, every remark of his is of the highest authority. The author's 

 opinion of Mr. Thomson's 'Catalogue' we find to be that "the want 

 of references, as to description and synonymy of the various species, 

 renders it almost useless :" this is another proof of the necessity of 

 what I have endeavoured to enforce. The amount of information 

 contained in this paper is quite a boon to Science. 



The sixth Part contains descriptions of some splendid species of 

 the genus Catascopus by Mr. Saunders, illustrated by two Plates : it 

 is to be regretted that figures of such beautiful insects should not be 

 coloured. The other papers contained in this Part are by Mr. Water- 

 house, Mr. Kirby, Mr. McLachlan, Mr. Hewilson and Mr. Trimen, — 

 all testifying to the truth of my general remark on the labours of the 

 year. 



Part 7 contains a very elaborate paper by Mr. Pascoe on 

 Australian Coleoptera : the descriptions are accompanied by a num- 

 ber of useful observations, and, when possible, the prominent dis- 

 tinctive differences from allied species are pointed out: two excellent 

 Plates illustrate this paper. Dr. Stal's descriptions of exotic He- 

 miptera complete this, and form the commencement of the following 

 Part : this latter also contains papers by Mr. Stainton, Mr. Baly and 

 Prof Westwood. 



