376 Transactions.—Z oology. 
generic characters vary from species to species of the same genus in a very 
marked manner, as may be readily seen by any one who will make a slight 
examination of four or five of our European species of Tropideres (such as 
T. cinctus, T. sepicola, T. niveirostris, and T. albirostris). 
I am acquainted with seventeen species of the family from New Zea- 
land; and on examining these, with a view to giving names to the new 
ones and indicating their affinities, I found myself, as I have said, to have 
undertaken a task which I could not readily execute with satisfaction. For 
I found these seventeen species to display such a wide range of difference in 
their structural characters, that it was clear that, in conformity with the 
recognized systematic arrangement of the species composing the family, 
they would have to be ascribed to a considerable number of distinct genera ; 
and on a further examination, the fact was also revealed that only a very 
few of the species could be placed satisfactorily in already established 
genera. And, again, on attempting to arrange these New Zealand species, 
with a view to grouping them into genera, I found that, even omitting all 
consideration as to their relations with insects found outside New Zealand, 
the task was no easy one, owing to the fact I have above alluded to, viz., 
the variation of generic characters from species to species, This point was 
rendered very evident to me by my examination ; and when I considered it 
in connexion with the additional fact that it is certain that a good many 
more species of the family than are yet known to me exist in New Zealand, 
it became quite clear to me that I could not deal with the generic questions 
in anything like a satisfactory manner, and that, if I attempted to meddle 
with these at all, I should very probably only encumber the nomenclature 
of entomology with a number of indefinite names. 
I have, therefore, adopted a course which I hope will facilitate the study 
and advance our knowledge of these insects, and yet will cause no difficulty 
to the students and systematists who are to follow me. I have drawn up 
descriptions of the new species, and given what I hope will prove to be a 
useful and permanent name to each of them, by using the term ** Anthribus ” 
as the first part of the permanent appellation of each species; while as 
regards the few already described species, I have left their names intact as 
originally given to each by its deseriber; and in my descriptions of new 
‘species I have, where it appeared important to do so, given also its most 
important structural characters. To complete the work, I have drawn up 
a table which will, I hope, facilitate the preliminary determination of the 
species; and in this table I have also indicated what appears to me at 
present to be the most convenient grouping or synthesis of the species. 
Previous to the researches of the last few years only two species of this 
family had been described from New Zealand, viz., Anthribus incertus, White, 
