2 ANNULOSA JAVANICA. 



insects. If, in short, new subgenera are here made, it is because otherwise I should have had 

 either to refer all the new Javanese insects to European subgenera, with the characters of which 

 they do not agree; or to assign them to large groupes, where the Entomologist would have had 

 to search for them among some hundreds of species, and at last have ended his toil with com- 

 plete uncertainty as to their identification. 



If my subgenera were in every case natural, or if I could in every case display their true 

 place in the series of affinity, I should as little think of offering an apology for minuteness 

 of investigation, as my readers would expect it. In that event, a sufficient answer would be, 

 that certain affinities were pointed out by such minute discrimination, while the resulting series 

 was natural ; but this I am sorry to say cannot be pretended in every case, and particularly in 

 that of one of the families into which the Linnean Carabus shall here be divided. Conse- 

 quently the new subgenera of this family, viz. the Harjmlida, must rest their stability first on 

 their own merits, as serving to make new forms definitely known ; and secondly, on the little 

 value of every argument that has hitherto been used to prove the minuteness of modern Ento- 

 mological genera. Indeed, on this last head I cannot refrain from calling the reader's attention 

 to a few curious facts, which will serve to illustrate an argument that has already been ably sus- 

 tained by Mr. Spence, in his monograph on the genus Choleva. 



There is nothing which makes the fertility of design that has characterized the Creation so 

 incontestably evident, as the variation of structure that sometimes prevails in groupes of an in- 

 ferior rank, such as genera or families. It is indeed manifest, that if a groupe like the Vertebrata 

 be of a primary degree, and the number of species it contains be nevertheless small, then the divi- 

 sions will be more decided and more easily seized than if the number of species were great. But if 

 the groupe be not of a primary nature like the Linnean genus Carabus, and yet the number of 

 species contained in it be great, then the difficulties of distribution are augmented, owing to the 

 number as well as to the minuteness of the differences to be seized. And yet it is such difficult 

 ground that we ought in a particular manner to cultivate, if we wish to attain a true knowledge 

 of nature; and this remark truly deserves attention from those who object to that delicacv of 

 research which has characterized the labours of MM. Clairville, Bonelli, and Dejean. anions: the 

 Harpalidce. The distinctions of these Entomologists are, it is true, often minute; but when we 

 observe that the groupes characterized by such distinctions contain twenty, thirty, sometimes 

 more than a hundred species, we necessarily say that, for the sake of convenience alone, it were 

 to be wished that even these groupes, minute as they are, could be subdivided. But while this de- 

 licacy of discrimination is useful for theartificial purposes of nomenclature,it becomesindispensably 

 necessary in the study of affinities. More than 1600 species of the Linnean genus Carabus have, 

 for instance, come within my own knowledge. Now, supposing a new species to occur, which 

 indeed happens every day, what definite idea of its structure or affinities can possibly be obtained 

 by a person who refers it to a groupe of 1600 beings of so many various forms ? And if these 

 1600 species compose but one genus, as they do according to Linnaeus, what person can be found 

 with either time or inclination to identify the specific name of one of them ? Indeed this circum- 

 stance of itself has rendered the identity of many species of Linnaeus, and even of Fabricius, 

 quite uncertain. For example : " Carabus alatus atcr nitidus, elytris striatis antennis ritfis" 

 (Fab. Syst. Eleuth. vol. i. p. 189) is a description that will apply to hundreds of insects, of 



structure, 



