4620 Entomological Society. 



reserved long gaps in their cabinets, under the fond idea that these were 

 to be eventually rilled, now find that half the names for which this 

 extensive accommodation was prepared actually signify nothing, while 

 a large portion of the remaining moiety is comprised of names erro- 

 neously applied. I do not lay this enormous mass of error at the 

 doors of any one or two or three individuals who may have been more 

 actively engaged than the rest in literary labours in Entomology : we 

 have all more or less contributed to this confusion by fostering amor- 

 bid desire for novelty, and a consequent tendency to exalt unreason- 

 ably the importance of accidental and inconstant differences. The 

 numerical diminution of names in Mr. Dawson's work extends to the 

 genera as well as to species, and no less than 31 genera, which had 

 become familiar as household words, have merged in others and dis- 

 appear : these are — Lamprias merged in Lebia ; Helobia and Pelo- 

 phila in Nebria : Blethisa in Elaphrus ; Trimorphus in Badister ; 

 Platynus and Agonum in Anchomenus ; Poecilus, *Abax, Platysma, 

 Adelosia, Steropus, Omaseus, Argutor and Platyderus in Pterostichus j 

 Celia, Acrodon, Percosia, Bradytus and Curtonotus in Amara ; Opho- 

 nus in Harpalus ; Epaphius in Trechus ; Cillenum, Tachys, Ocys, 

 Philocthus, Peryphus, Notaphus, Leja, Lopha and Tachypus in Bem- 

 bidium. These are sweeping alterations, but I think there is no doubt 

 they will be regarded as wholesome ones, for this department of our 

 science had really become overloaded with names that signify 

 nothing. The actual additions to our British Geodephaga make slight 

 compensation for the large deductions : these are twenty-one in num- 

 ber, and are highly interesting in character: — 1. Dyschirius obscurus 

 of Gyllenhall, found by Mr. Haliday on the sandy shores of Lough 

 Neagh. 2. Dyschirius impunctipennis of Dawson, found by the author 

 by the side of a stream on the Smallmouth sands, near Weymouth. 

 3. Dyschirius jejunus of Dawson, found by Mr. Bold, of Newcastle, 

 on a sandy bank of the river Irthing, in Cumberland, a little above 

 Lanercost Abbey. 4. Anchomenus atratus of Duftschmidt, first cap- 

 tured in Hampshire, afterwards in Cornwall and other western coun- 

 ties of England, and very abundantly near Bristol. 5. Amara curta 

 of Dejean, not uncommon on the sand-hills at Deal, in company with 

 lucida and tibialis, but readily distinguishable from either by its 

 broader form. 6. Amara ingenua of Duftschmidt, a well-known Eu- 

 ropean species, but unique as British, the only known example having 

 been captured in Scotland. 7. Harpalus cordatus of Duftschmidt, 

 also well known on the Continent and also unique as British ; the 

 only example was captured by the author near Deal, at the roots of 



