The President's Address. 



123 



been carefully and conscientiously investigated, and that the conclusions 

 to which they had come were to be relied upon. One fortunate accidental 

 circumstance in that case prevented the embroilment of synonymy becom- 

 ing so great as it would otherwise have been : Kirby, instead of giving 

 separate generic or subgeneric names to his minor sections, indicated them 

 merely by a greater or less number of asterisks or Greek letters, so that 

 the generic names which had been given them by Latreille stood and 

 answered both for his own sections and for those of Kirby. In this in- 

 stance the same coincidence does not occur. Gerstacker has taken his 

 generic characters chiefly from the parts of the mouth ; Guerin-Meneville 

 from the elytra, the legs, and the prosternum — which latter, however, has 

 also been made use of by Gerstacker ; but fortunately, before Gerstacker's 

 work issued from the press, he had the opportunity of seeing Guerin's 

 papers, and he points out the differences between them in an appendix. 



Some other valuable monographs have appeared in various periodicals, 

 or in occasional works which are issued by one or two zealous entomolo- 

 gists — in the Opuscules of Mulsant, the Archives of Thomson of Paris, 

 and the Etudes Entomologiques of Motschoulsky, &c, &c. In his Opus- 

 cules, Mulsant has published several valuable monographical papers, con- 

 tributions to the history of the Pedinites, and others of the Heteromera. 

 M. Motschoulsky has given a monograph of the Lampyridce or glow- 

 worms, and of the Malacodermata, in his Etudes. Mr Thomson is 

 publishing a monograph of the Cicindelidce, with coloured figures of 

 every species, in a style of "luxe" (we have no word which expresses 

 the meaning so well) hitherto unequalled. He has also, with equal 

 magnificence, in his Archives, monographed the Anacoli, Tragocepliali, 

 &c, limited but beautiful tribes of Longicornes. Several lesser mono- 

 graphs have also lately appeared, such as that of M. Bouldieu on the 

 Ptini (Ann. Soc. Ent. Fr.) ; and of M. De Bonvouloir on the Tliros- 

 cidce, &c. 



Let us now turn to the special additions to our knowledge of insects 

 and of their geographical distribution. We naturally turn our eyes first 

 to our native country, and inquire what advance British Entomology has 

 been making. From various causes, the zeal of our entomologists has 

 of late chiefly taken the direction of the Lepidoptera. Mr Stainton, by 

 his personal energy, as well as by his work on the Tineina, has given a 

 great impulse to the study of the Microlepidoptera ; and his Entomolo- 

 gist's Annual, which has been the chief outlet to the votaries of British 

 Entomology, has naturally been principally occupied with the department 

 which its editor most affects. Mr Jansen, however, in that annual has 

 done good service to the Coleoptera, by placing upon record the capture of 

 such species as were not previously known to be British — or rather, not 

 recorded in Stephens' Manual as British. This record of additions, which 

 is prepared with much care, comes at a most suitable time to aid Mr 

 Waterhouse in his unpretending but most laborious construction of a 

 catalogue of all the British species of Coleoptera. As this is not merely 

 a catalogue of all Stephens' species, with the addition of such novelties as 

 Mr Jansen and others may have recorded, but a careful examination of 

 every specimen in Stephens' collection, and an unravelling and compari- 

 son with continental names of his and Kirby's synonymes, so as to give 

 us a true list of what is really native (no doubtful species being admitted), 

 it is obvious that it is a work which could only be undertaken by a con- 

 summate entomologist. He has published about the half of it ; and as, 

 for the sake of certainty and harmony with the continental nomenclature 

 in such difficult families as the Stapliylinidce and Nitidulidce, he has ex- 

 pressly visited the continental collections, so as to see the true types of 

 Erichson and others, we have a work of European value. I can truly 



