1875.] 373 [Sprague. 



Section of Entomology. January 27, 1875. 



Mr. S. Henshaw in the chair. Seven persons present. 



The following paper was read : — 



On the Species of Coleoptera described by Mr. J. W. 

 Randall. 1 By P. S. Sprague, with Notes by E. P. Austin. 



J. W. Randall, a young and enthusiastic entomologist, a student 

 at Harvard, and a pupil of Dr. Harris, having collected quite a large 

 cabinet of Coleoptera, very many of which were undescribed, com- 

 menced in the year 1837 to prepare for publication in the Journal 

 of this Society descriptions of those species which he supposed least 

 likely to have been at that time noticed. At this time entomology in 

 this country was in its infancy, and much less advanced than now in 

 Europe. The large and distinctly marked families were, to quite an 

 extent, well denned, but the smaller and less conspicuous ones had no 

 settled place. The subdivisions of tribes and groups, as well as 

 genera, were recognized, but indefinitely marked; while the lack 

 in America of an extended knowledge of what foreign authors had 

 done, in connection with the fact that each entomologist had a sys- 

 tem of his own, produced a confusion in determining the generic 

 position of species which is now seriously felt in working up the 

 species of the older authors. The now large and well marked 

 family of Elateridae, which in our fauna is composed of tribes, sub- 

 tribes, groups, and no less than seventy genera, was at that time 

 scarcely divided, and nearly every species came under the generic 

 head of Elater. Of the eighty-four species of Coleoptera described 

 by Mr. Randall in Vol. II of the Boston Journal of Natural History 

 (1838), more than three-fourths have had their generic names 

 changed. Much confusion has arisen from the fact that species re- 

 sembling each other in general form were by him put under the same 

 generic heads, but now our more extended knowledge of the true 

 differences has placed them far apart. Short descriptions were the 

 rule, or I might say the fashion, and even a published catalogue 

 name was considered sufficient notice to entitle one to hold his spe- 

 cies, but the greater present knowledge, the more extended collec- 

 tions, showing the close affinity of many species, have almost wholly 



1 In the Journal of the Boston Society of Natural History, Vol. il, 1838. 



