The President's Address. 



127 



but there was no general systematic work until Prof. Boheman, of Stock- 

 holm, four or five years ago, commenced his Insecta Cajfraria. The first 

 volume was then published; and the second . containing the Lamellicornes, 

 lias appeared during the last year. Like all Boheman's works, this is most 

 satisfactory. I find a general impression among working entomologists, 

 that Boheman's descriptions come nearer to what an entomological descrip- 

 tion should be, not only in acuteness and discrimination, but also in attain- 

 ing the proper medium, in point of length, than those of almost any other 

 living entomologist. 



Madagascar stands blank. Nothing has been done to it during the 

 period I am reviewing, either in the way of collecting or describing, unless 

 wo reckon as something the unsuccessful attempt of Madame PfeifFer. 

 The cruelty and atrocity of the queen have made it forbidden ground, and 

 it is like to continue so, at all events during her life, unless some fortu- 

 nate political squabble with some of our ships shall rouse our Government 

 to^ interference, or a lack of other openings shall tempt some of our 

 missionaries to that wondrous land. 



Signor Bertolini has supplied the collections of Europe with a fair 

 sample of the productions of Mozambique, and has also given descrip- 

 tions of the most striking. 



Passing Abyssinia, the Red Sea, Arabia, Persia, and the Himalayas, 

 which have produced little or nothing new during the last few years, we 

 shall find that a good deal has been done in India, more especially in its 

 southern portion and Ceylon. M. Nietner has discovered and described 

 a good many new species from Ceylon, particularly a number of minute 

 species generally overlooked. Count Motschoulsky, in his last two years' 

 Etudes Entomologiqv.es, has also described a great many minute species, 

 some of them of very singular and abnormal appearance. A very con- 

 siderable number of species of Coleoptera from Ceylon have also been 

 described in the Annals of Natural History, during the last year, by Mr 

 Francis Walker, well known for his papers on the Chalcidites ; for his 

 two volumes on British Diptera (Insecta Britannica) ; and for his Cata- 

 logues of Moths in the British Museum. Unfortunately, Mr Walker has 

 sacrificed everything to shortness, so that, without their apology, his 

 descriptions, so far as regards decipherableness, must rank with those of 

 Linnaeus and Fabricius. Nagpore has its name, which was already dis- 

 tinguished in natural science, rendered still more so during the last few 

 years through the exertions of two Scottish missionaries, our friends Mr 

 Hislop and Mr Hunter. It is chiefly to geology that their studies have 

 been directed, and they have brought home with them a number of fossil 

 parts of insects, which, through their kindness, were placed in my hands 

 for examination and description. These, so far as they were in a condi- 

 tion to allow of its being done, I described in a paper which formed part 

 of Mr Hislop 's general geological work, now in course of publication by 

 the Geological Society of London. The materials were too few and im- 

 perfect to generalize from ; but they all belonged to the great families still 

 common on the Indian continent — J8uprestido3, Curculionidaz, &c. The 

 structure, however, of some of them seemed to have more affinity with 

 certain modern Australian forms. This, however, rests on a mere hazy 

 resemblance, insufficient to warrant reliable deductions. The arrivals of 

 species from China, Hongkong, Singapore, Java, &c, have been few of 

 late years, and the descriptions of new species still fewer, being limited to 

 a, few isolated species, described for their beauty, such as Carabus Fidu- 

 ciarus, Carabus Celestis, &c, and a few Phytophaga, occasionally described 

 by Dr Baly. 



M. Motschoulsky, however, has given us the descriptions of a number 

 of species picked up at the mouth of the Amoor and in Japan by M. Gas- 



