Suites a Buffon. 567 



II. — Suites a Buffon, formant, avec les ceuvres de eel auleur un cours 

 complet d'histoire naturelle. Collection accompagnee de planches. 

 Dipleres, par M. Macquart. Tom i. 1834. — Species general des 

 Lepidopteres, par le Dr Boisduval. Tom. i. 1836. 

 Judging from the volumes which we have had an opportunity of 

 examining, the Suites a Buffon promise to form one of the most 

 valuable contributions to natural history that has appeared for a 

 considerable time. The design is an extensive one, and its success- 

 ful completion will entitle the projectors to the gratitude of all the 

 cultivators of natural science. It embraces a comprehensive view, 

 descriptive and historical, of all the different departments of the 

 animal kingdom which were not adequately treated of by Buffon. 

 As supplementary, therefore, to the works of that eminent writer, 

 this series relates chiefly to the invertebrate animals, the natural his- 

 tory of which was comparatively little understood in his time. It is es- 

 timated to extend to about 45 octavo volumes, a considerable number 

 of which have been already published, and the rest are promised at 

 monthly intervals. The authors entrusted with the respective de- 

 partments have long made them a subject of careful study, and in 

 general are well known to naturalists by works already published in 

 relation to them. In the entomological department, to which for 

 the present we mean to restrict our observations, we find the names 

 of De Jean (Coleoptera), Boisduval (Lepidoplera), Le Peletier 

 de Saint Fargeau (Hymenoptera), Audinet Serville (Orthopiera, 

 Neuroptera and Hemipiera), Lacordaire (Introduction to Entomo- 

 logy), and Macquart (Diptera), all of whom have already shewn 

 their intimate acquaintance with the different branches they have 

 undertaken to illustrate. 



The last named individual first became known in this country by 

 his work on the Dipterous insects of the north of France. This 

 production affords a detailed description of all the species found by 

 the author in the district alluded to, accompanied with a pretty full 

 account of their general history, and generic distinctions. It is not, 

 however, distinguished for originality, comparatively little import- 

 ant information being supplied that is not to be found in Meigen's 

 admirable work on the two-winged insects of Europe, from which 

 in most cases the descriptions have been little more than translated. 

 In one instance, perhaps, he may be admitted to have improved on 

 his model, by taking more particularly into account the neuration 

 of the wings, from which he has been enabled to deduce characters 

 of the greatest importance in the definition of natural groups. 



