128 Recent Literature. [ February, 
future of asking a: participation in the inshore fisheries of the 
British provinces, and thus enable us to dispense with fishery 
treaties or fishery relations of any kind with the British or other 
governments.” 
Horn’s Synopsis OF THE BuRYING BEETLES OF THE UNITED 
Strates.\—Although this essay is modestly called a “ Synopsis,” 
it is much more than that, as the characters of the family and its 
sub-divisions, of every species and genfus, are given with suffi- 
cient fullness, and moreover the common species which were 
described years ago are re-described. This is an excellent feature, 
because in synopses of different groups of insects it is usually the | 
case that the species already described are mentioned only by 
name, and to the beginner it is difficult to learn what are really 
the common species briefly and imperfectly described in the often 
inaccessible works of Linnaeus, Fabricius, Olivier, Dejean and 
others. Another excellent feature of the essay is that the author 
has himself given excellent figures in outline of all known genera 
with few exceptions), nearly all of which have been drawn by 
himself from nature. 
Dr Horn has made some changes in the limits of the group, 
and all the foreign genera have been included in the study an 
mentioned in the generic tables, though not described. The 
family is an interesting one, as it includes the true burying 
beetles, and also a good proportion of the cave beetle of Europe 
and America. It is interesting to trace,as Dr. Horn has done, 
the relationship of our Ade/ops:of the Mammoth Cave to the 
out-of-door forms, and to see, a point not however noticed by 
the author, that Adelops simply differs from its out-of-door al- 
lies of the genus Ptomaphagus in the small eyes, and longer, 
slenderer antenne, and other slight characters, so as to lead our 
author to say that Adelops “is closely allied to Ptomaphagus 
and I am in doubt whether it should be retained as distinct.’ 
We should reason from this that Ade/ops hirtus was originally de- . 4 
rived from some out-of-door species of Ptomaphagus which h 
got into the cave and been modified by its cave-life into its pres- 4 
ent form. The main results of a cave life are the impairment OF — 
actual loss of the eyes, and to compensate for this the elongation 
of the antennez, which probably renders the sense of touch, and 
possibly of smell, moreacute. This also adds another to the cases 2 
which almost demonstrate that all the cave animals have origi- 
nated from out-of-door forms. 
In conclusion we may express the hope that the recent labors 
of Drs. LeConte and Horn, may enable them ere many years to 
prepare a compact manual of our United States Coleoptera, a con- — 
summation most devoutly to be wished. With fair compendiums 
1 Synopsis of the Silphidz of the United States with reference to the genera of 3 | 
other countries. By Geo. H. Horn,M.D. From the transactions of the American 
Entomological Society. Philadelphia, 1880. 8°, pp. 219-320. 3 plates. 
