1889J 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



29 



ateness, so that we can now almost tell from the applicability of its 

 name whether or not any particular species was discovered by this 

 author. Fabricus also originated that further sub-division of genera 

 which afterwards, in the hands of Olivier and Latreille, led to the idea 

 of families, thus Fabricus divides what he calls Carabus, but which 

 was nearly equivalent to what we call Geodephaga, into five sections, 

 according to the shape of the thorax, that being, of course, previous to 

 Clairville's divisions in 1806. The total number of genera was brought 

 up to about 120 by this author, Linnaeus only having determined 30. 



We must now cursorily refer to a number of authorities, who, 

 between 1790 and 18 10, were continually adding new species to those 

 already described, and proposing new genera by splitting up old and 

 creating fresh ones. One of the principal of these authors was 

 Illiger, a German. In 1798, the same year which saw the issue of 

 of Clairville's work, he published his " Kafer Preusseus," and from 

 1802 edited an entomological magazine in Berlin, probably the first 

 serial of its kind. He adhered, as regards classification, to the French 

 or tarsal system, and we may remember him by the well-known genus 

 Aphodius which he first named. Besides Illiger, Panzer, Voet, 

 Sterm, Paykull, Frcelich, Herbst, Creutzer, Olivier, and various other 

 authors, mostly German, and whose initials appended to the names 

 in our specific lists, are familiar to many of us, were during these 

 years publishing works, contributing monographs to " Illiger's Maga- 

 zine," or writing papers for the various scientific societies of the 

 continent. Olivier, a French doctor, is one of the most noteworthy 

 of these. He published in 1789, an " Entomologie " in eight volumes, 

 and seems to have corresponded with Dr. Marsham in England, and all 

 the best entomologists of the continent. He determined several new 

 species, but he was as regards classification an attached tarsalist. 

 All these authors indeed were divided into either the Northern school 

 of Linnaeus and Fabricius, or the French one, which about that time 

 was beginning to be elaborated by the Abbe Latreille. We must re- 

 member that at that time there were no family or sub-family groups, 

 only artificial divisions, differentiated by tarsi or antennae, and genera 

 which bore more natural affinities. It is extremely difficult for us 

 now to trace the exact course of generic development during these 

 years, as the same names were used by different systematists for dif- 

 ferent genera, or different names for the same insects ; fresh editions 

 of the various text books were constantly being issued, each one con- 

 taining some corrections or improvements on former editions ; generic 

 characteristics were continually being modified by the discovery of 



