from the contributions of those who were occu- 

 pied in the adventurous task of exploring remote 

 and unknown regions, had so far augmented the 

 obstacles already existing, that the hand of refor- 

 mation became absolutely necessary. Accordingly 

 Olivier, Herbst, Fabricius, Latreille, Germar, Me- 

 gerle, and other distinguished systematists, under- 

 took to separate the Linnaean genus Curculio 

 into numerous smaller assemblages, and thus to 

 bring this part of the system into a more inti- 

 mate alliance with the order observed by nature 

 in the distribution of species. 



The labours of these naturalists eventuated in 

 the construction of more than one hundred addi- 

 tional genera, but the characters of many of 

 these genera appear to be too obscure, and of 

 others not sufficiently important to justify their 

 collective adoption. By far the greater portion 

 of them, however, will probably tend to the elu- 

 cidation of this difficult part of the system, and 

 amongst these may be ranked the genus Calan- 

 dra of Clairville, distinguished by obvious and 

 striking traits. 



The history of many species of this group is 

 highly interesting and important, and we pro- 

 pose to represent, in a future volume, those that 

 are so destructive to the wheat, rice, and maize. 



PLATE IX. 



