1889.] 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



thus treated, stigmatised by notes of interrogation being placed before 

 the names of their species, as if it were impossible to determine the 

 insects referred to by them from their descriptions and collections. I 

 fear Mr. Crotch has simply altered the names in order to try and 

 extinguish troublesome claimants for priority over his Teutonic 

 favourites, and that he has not endeavoured to make out the species 

 in question by the means at the disposal of every one willing to make 

 use of them : had he done so he would not have had occasion to 

 place queries before so many species, of which several are so easy to 

 determine." 



Furthermore, Mr. Rye gives a list of eleven species, some of which 

 are considered even now, to say the very least, as "not uncommon," 

 that " surely ought to have had a place as British." The first of 

 these, Otiovhynchus sulcahis, as is well known to gardeners in North 

 London, is generally a very common beetle, but, like other things, 

 those who want it must search properly to find it. Adimonia sanguined, 

 also included in the number, may likewise be termed "common," — 

 and most of the others are equally well known to us. 



From the foregoing, it will be seen that the reception accorded to 

 Mr. Crotch's catalogue cannot be termed flattering, Mr. Rye being as 

 much opposed to continental nomenclature as Mr. Janson was in 

 favour of it. Yet in a succeeding volume of the Annual, Mr. Rye 

 rather seemed to recant his former opinion, and acknowledges that 

 " the extension of acquaintance with continental opinions " arose 

 " chiefly from the energy of Mr. G. R. Crotch." 



In 1866, Mr. Rye brought out a useful little work as an intro- 

 duction to the study of British beetles, which he states was intended 

 rather as a "delectus " than a hand-book; and appended thereto is 

 a list, consisting." mainly of Mr. Waterhouse's catalogue, with some 

 few alterations in position, and the addition of the species discovered 

 since the publication of the latter." Towards the end of the same 

 year, Mr. Crotch, who had acquired the large collections of Messrs. 

 Wollaston, Janson, and others, brought out a " second edition of his 

 Catalogue of British Coleoptera, accompanied by verification of most 

 of his additions in 1 Newman's Entomologist ' and in a paper com- 

 municated to the Entomological Society." There were consider- 

 able additions to the new species in this list, the number for 1866 

 alone reaching the high figure of 123 "new to this country," and 19 

 "species new to science," although of the former number Mr. Rye 

 thinks " that the odd 23 or thereabouts must be considered as some- 

 what doubtful." The catalogue, as formerly, was based on the re- 



