North American Species of Trogopldceiis, 323 



closed space, as recommended by Dr. Sharp and M. Raffray, 

 there are causes at work, accidental or otherwise, which will in 

 time cause their destruction; so that it is scarcely plausible ta 

 hope to keep them intact for a greater period than, say, several 

 centuries. 



To delineate a specimen with all the useful detail observable 

 in nature, is, although not perhaps an impossibility, a result 

 which has never yet to my knowledge been attained, and the 

 enormous expense of such a course would probably forever pre- 

 vent its applicability. With an objective of an inch and a half 

 for instance, a specimen two millimetres in length appears to be 

 eighty. This is the minimum useful working power for insects 

 of this size, and under these conditions the characteristic nature 

 of pubescence, punctuation, and tegumental structure first 

 suggest themselves. Our figures would, therefore, necessarily 

 have to be of these dimensions, in order to reproduce the useful 

 differential elements with any degree of accuracy. It is true 

 that mere outline, and a representation of the larger and more 

 striking characters, will serve to identify a vast number of 

 species; but there are many genera, especially in the Staphylinidae, 

 where it occasionally happens that greater detail is absolutely 

 necessary in order that there may be any certainty of recog- 

 nition. 



Arriving at the third condition, there is one fact which it ap- 

 pears to the author should receive more consideration than is 

 usually given it, viz. : that the description is absolutely inde- 

 structible; printed in unalterable carbon, it will endure for 

 unlimited time, if not in its original shape, at least in the photo- 

 lithographic reproductions which in coming years will render 

 the complete restoration of a volume a matter of very little cost 

 and labor. It seems, therefore, that an effort on the part of 

 authors to arrive at the ideal of perfection in the typical de- 

 scription, would be the best course to take; a description which, 

 while being concise, should be practically complete and thor- 

 oughly exhaustive. A concise and uniform system of nomen- 

 clature for all the parts and structures described, would be an 

 effective foundation for such a descriptive system, since ordinary 

 language is too verbose, and at the same time too indefinite for 

 such purposes. 



