5900 



Insects. 



our sj ecies are, for a variable species often figures under a dozen 

 different names, and foreign descriptions have been translated, and, 

 w ith the names, applied to insects to which they do not belong. To 

 disentangle this web of synonymy is no easy task, and is necessarily 

 a work of time : some of our best coleopterists have applied them- 

 selves to it, and are still engaged upon it, and we may eventually 

 have our lists in accordance with those of the Continent. 



But in the meantime the want of a cheap compendious Catalogue 

 of Coleoptera is a great drawback to collectors in this country. I do 

 not say this without reason, or merely from my own experience, for I 

 have had many letters pointing out that the writers cannot accept 

 offers of species not British, because they cannot inform their corre- 

 spondents abroad what species are natives of our island, and also that 

 the arrangement of their British collections is retarded. I know it is 

 said that many persons think too much of making collections, and it 

 is true ; but if we assist them in so doing we shall all have more ma- 

 terial to work on for elucidating the natural history and geographical 

 distribution of species, and perhaps induce the persons in question to 

 become something more than collectors. 



The thing that requires to be done in the present stage of affairs, 

 and pending the investigation of synonymy in those families where it 

 has not been revised, is, that those persons w^ho have specially 

 studied the several families should mark off the species in the Stettin 

 Catalogue which they know to be British (and I believe that to more 

 than one such a work would not be difficult), filHng up the gaps 

 where all are at fault with Stephens' names, and take the list thus 

 prepared as the beginning of a new British Catalogue. Synonyms 

 need not be added, because part are already ^ven in other works ; the 

 remainder would follow, and collectors would soon learn to what spe- 

 cies the names adopted were to be applied. Such a work I have rea- 

 son to know would be received with favour, notwithstanding its faults, 

 and in a year or two we should be able to bring out another edition 

 correcting many of the errors. This is the course that was pursued 

 with the British Micro-Lepidoptera, and the result is that within a 

 few^ years we have assimilated our nomenclature to that of Germany, 

 and no longer stand in isolated ignorance. There is no cause to 

 doubt that those most capable of doing the work will give the requi- 

 site assistance ; nor can I for a moment entertain the idea which has 

 been started, that there are persons who would like to see it done 

 only for the pleasure it would give them to cut it to pieces and show 

 its errors. But, doubtless, if such a course were pursued it would 



