96 



MR. R. M £ LACHLAN ON NEW FORMS, ETC., 



On new Forms, &c., of extra-European Trichopterous Insects. 

 By Kobert M'Lachlan, E.L.S. 



(Plates II., III. & IV.) 



[Head June 2, 1870.] 



The present paper may be regarded as a continuation of se- 

 veral memoirs by me on exotic TricJwptera, published in the 

 ' Transactions of the Entomological Society of London ' (Trans. 

 Ent. Soc. ser. 3, vol. i. pp. 301-312, 492-496, vol. v. pp. 247- 

 278). Many of the insects here noticed I owe to the liberality 

 of my valued correspondent Mr. Henry Edwards, of San Eran- 

 cisco, from whom I had already, during his residence in New 

 Zealand, received such substantial evidence of his desire to assist 

 me by collecting these neglected insects, and who, since he has made 

 Western America his home, has continued to help me. I have 

 not, however, confined myself here solely to Californian species, 

 but have added several remarkable forms from other parts of 

 America, and also from the Old "World. No doubt it is always 

 advisable to restrict general papers of this nature within geogra- 

 phical limits ; but this applies most forcibly to families which 

 have already been made the subjects of general study. To fol- 

 low this plan in exotic TricJwptera would be almost impossible, 

 inasmuch as, though occasionally a considerable number of spe- 

 cies may be collected in one locality by an entomologist who 

 attends to other insects besides the almost hackneyed Butterflies 

 and Beetles, many interesting forms must remain unnoticed 

 in collections for years, because they are the results of only 

 desultory observation on the part of collectors. This, there- 

 fore, must be my excuse for the scattered nature of the materials 

 in this paper. When the day shall arrive when Neuropterists 

 may be as plentiful as Lepidopterists, Coleopterists, and even 

 Hymenopterists now are, it will then be absolutely necessary 

 that workers should confine themselves, in each paper, within 

 limits, either of locality, or family, or genus; to do that now 

 would put a stop to all work, because, by the omission of any 

 notice, collectors would fail to bestow any attention whatever on 

 these insects, and the evil would be increased rather than mitigated. 

 As in previous papers, I have endeavoured to illustrate by means 

 of outline figures those intricate points of neuration and se- 

 condary sexual characters which form so essential a part in the 



