Entomological Society. 



6617 



Mr. Westwood also exhibited several specimens of the insects which injure books 

 and book-bindings, namely, a small species of Anobium with punctate-striate elytra, 

 in the imago state, which Mr. Westwood regarded as Anobium paniceum, but which 

 Mr. Janson thought was not a native species (a question, indeed, of considerable 

 importance) ; these had been found dead in eastern manuscripts, with many living 

 larva?, which from their size might fairly be assumed to be those of this species of 

 Anobium : also a Ptinideous larva, which Mr. Westwood had found gnawing the 

 morocco covers of books in his own library, in the same manner as the Lepidopterous 

 larva which he had exhibited at a previous meeting of the Society : also a large 

 Ptinideous larva, found within the covers of a Syriac manuscript, which Mr. Westwood 

 considered to be that of Ptinus fur, as dead specimens of that species had also been 

 found in the same collection of books. 



Mr. Smith observed that he had seen the female of Vespa vulgaris on the wing on 

 the 14th of February last, — a proof of the unusual mildness of the season at that 

 period. 



The Secretary read the following communication from Mr. A. R. Wallace, Corre- 

 sponding Member of the Society, dated Batchian, Moluccas, Nov., 1858, intituled 



Remarks on enlarged coloured Figures of Insects. 



14 The practice of publishing highly-coloured figures of insects, more especially of 

 Coleoptera, above the natural size, is so very general that I fear I shall stand almost 

 alone in protesting against it. 



"Coloured figures should represent nature in every respect. They should as much 

 as possible take the place of actual specimens, enabling us more readily to determine 

 species than can be done by descriptions, and making us acquainted with the actual 

 appearance of the rare and beautiful forms which are daily being discovered. Insects, 

 it is true, vary very much in size ; yet, as a general rule, magnitude is a great assist- 

 ance, and often an important supplementary character, in determining species. This 

 assistance we altogether lose by enlarging our coloured figures ; for not only does it 

 require time to look for the line of size appended to each, and to consider the effect of 

 reducing the insect to that size, but a small and obscure species is often so trans- 

 formed, by all its delicate detail being brought out and exaggerated, that we may 

 pass it over altogether as something we have never seen, although the identical insect 

 may be wailing for its name in our cabinet. The evil is made still greater by no 

 system being followed. In the same plate we have insects figured of the natural size, 

 and others slightly or very much enlarged ; so that in some cases the largest figure 

 represents the smallest of the insects. See White's Cat. of Longicorns in B. M. tab. 6, 

 figs. 5 and 9. An instance of the same anomaly occurs also, I believe, in one of the 

 plates of Longicorns illustrating Mr. Pascoe's second paper in the Transactions of the 

 Society. 



'* There is also another evil in this unsystematic enlargement of insects, — that we 

 cannot readily check the accuracy of the figures, which must be often very doubtful, 

 as the artist must trust solely to his eyes for the various proportions ; whereas in figures 

 of the natural size a fine pair of compasses will both give the principal dimensions 

 accurately, and enable any one in a moment to test their accuracy. Now, though 



XVII. 



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