1808.J 



153 



unsightliness caused by the " rooting " of the ground by the hogs ; but this might 

 probably be partially avoided were the plan of " ringing," used by English pig- 

 keepera, adopted there. 



We hope again to have occasion to notice this useful publication. 



Catalogus Hymenopterorum EuROPiE, auctore L. Kirchner, Herausg. von der 

 K. K. Zool.-Bot. Gesellsch. in Wien, Vindobonae. ]867. 



This work gives in 285 pages the genera and species of Hymenoptera, with the 

 author's name to each, and frequently, but not always, a sufficient indication to 

 enable us to find the description. To the parasitic groups is added the name of 

 the insect preyed upon j this, however, is not done so fully as might have been 

 expected. The idea is excellent, and if the execution were in any respect equal to 

 the design, a most valuable contribution would have been made to the literature of 

 the Order. Even as it is, some assistance may be derived from it, but the mistakes 

 and omissions are so frequent, that little confidence could be placed in it as a 

 standard of reference, or as an oracle for the solution of knotty points. Opening 

 the work at page 38 (IchnevmonidcB), we observe that the two first genera, Eristicus 

 and EwpalamuSy Wesm., are retained, although expressly discarded by their original 

 author in his subsequent works, and their species distributed among Ichneumon 

 and Eimjlahus. On p. 39, Ichneumon^ sp. 1 is spelt abator, Desv., instead of ohator, 

 whereby the alphabetical arrangement is broken, and the real ohator, sp. 173, is 

 sought for in vain. Sp. 5, alhicinctus, Gr., and 7, albila/rvatiis, Gr., should have 

 been placed under Phygadewn. Sp. 20, Ichn. AU'opos, Newport, should have been 

 placed under Trogus ; Curtis, and not Newport, is the author of the name, which 

 after all is a mere synonym of Tr. Vutorius, Fab. Sp. 32, Ichn. Ininnicornis, Gr., is 

 repeated on p. 49, as Herpestomus hrunnicornis, Gr. Spp. 46 and 47 have the 

 same name, comis, Wesm. Next to the genus Ichneumon is placed Acrodactyla, 

 Hal., which belongs to the Pimplarice, and should stand close to Polysphincta ; the 

 typical sp. A. madida, Hal., is omitted. On p. 48 we &nd Eiirylahus dims, Wesm., 

 which figures previously on p. 38 as Ewpalamus dims, Wesm. On p. 59 Microleptes 

 splendidulus, Gr. (an Ichneumonoid form), is given as a synonym of Pterocormus 

 means, Gr., among the CrijptidcE, the blunder being caused by a typographical 

 error in Desvignes' Catalogue, corrected in the errata of that work. Nearly all the 

 names of Stephens, Curtis, and Haliday appear to be omitted, unless they chance 

 to be quoted by some continental writer. Ex pede Herculem ; we have given 

 enough to show the general style of the book, which in its present state can only 

 serve to mislead and confound. It requires a thorough revision, to be carried out 

 not by the mere perfunctory copying of names, but by actually reading the cir- 

 cumjacent matter, which alone can give meaning and arrangement to those names. 

 The task undertaken by the author is a great one, perhaps too much for the powers 

 of any individual. So formidable a list coald not be thoroughly purged of errors. 

 But the duty of a cataloguer requires that he should at least faithfully represent 

 the results attained by the authors whose works he undertakes to examine, leaving 

 them responsible for their own conclusions. We regret to observe that this obvious 

 duty is very far from being fulfilled by the work before us. It is conceivable that 

 a future edition might be more carefully prepared from so laborious a ground- 

 work, which would be hailed with pleasure by students of the Hymenoptera, and 

 would go far to place them in the comparatively happy state of certainty enjoyed 

 by the Coleopterists and Lepidopterists. 



