864 AUSTRALIAN COLEOPTERA, WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW SPECIES, 



think Mr. Macleay has acted on the right principle (in dealing with 

 those descriptions which might apply to anyone of several species) 

 in selecting a particular one to bear the name and describing it so 

 fully, — expanding the original description, — that it may be at 

 least clear to what insect he applies the name, — thus leaving to 

 any student who may possess information that has not come before 

 Mr. Macleay the burden of correcting him if he is wrong. There are 

 so many Australian species the types of which Europeans have 

 described badly and then lost, that Australian students must 

 choose between the course Mr. Macleay has adopted and that of 

 holding aloof from describing the insects of their own country. 



In dealing with the species before me of this genus I propose, 

 tlien, to accept the whole of Mr. Macleay's determinations as 

 conventionally correct, although in some instances I may express 

 a doubt of their absolute correctness, so that my remarks will be 

 in harmony with his valuable monograph of the genus, and conse- 

 quently whatever corrections may eventually be applied to his 

 determinations will have to be read into my remarks. 



H. PRINCEPS. 



I expect to lind eventually, as Mr. Macleay evidently thinks 

 probable, that the South Australian species to which he applies 

 this name is distinct from the Western Australian species on 

 which Hope's vague description is founded. 



H. iNTERMEDius, de Breme. 



I regard this as the most doubtful of all Mr. Macleay's deter- 

 minations, as I fail to find in the insect to which he applies this 

 name any more distinct abbreviated elytral costa than there is in all 

 its allies. In my opinion the following species (which Mr. Macleay 

 considers hitherto undescribed) is quite as likely to be the true 

 //. intennedius as that to which Mr. Macleay has appropriated 

 the name, but, in accordance with the principle I have laid down, 

 I accept his decision. 



