The President's Address. 
129 
and a good many of the new species iDrouglit to this country "by M. Cha- 
"brillac have been described by Fairmaire and others in the Transactions 
of the Entomological Society of France. The contributions to the en- 
tomology of the Andes, in the neighbourhood of Quito, sent to this 
country by our correspondent Professor Jameson, have been partially 
recorded by Dr Baly and myself, and a number of small species from 
Panama have been described by Count Motschoulsky. 
Dr Leconte, a worthy son of a worthy sire, has taken entire possession 
of North America. He is the chief, indeed almost the only, entomological 
author now working in America ; but he is a host in himself. He has 
reviewed most of the difficult families in the United States ; his revisions, 
in fact, being singularly able monographs, evolving the most original 
views. He has thus gon© over the Cicindelidce^ Carahidce., including 
the Amarce and Bembidia, the HydrocantJiaridce, the Palpicornes, the 
Buprestidce, the Elateridce, the Lamellicornes, and the Longicornes 
of North America. He has, along with Dr Harris and Melsheimer, 
brought out the catalogue of species of Coleoptera in the United States, 
and has lent his hand in every quarter of the States to the advancement 
of zoological knowledge. I am here restricted to speaking of his doings 
in relation to the Coleoptera ; but, were the time fitting, I might enlarge 
on his services in regard to almost every class of animals, from the Verte- 
brata downwards. In the Coleoptera, at an early period, we have from 
his pen descriptions of numerous species from California ; we have de- 
scriptions of species from Texas ; we have descriptions of species from 
Lake Superior — part of the report by Agassiz on that district ; we have 
descriptions of species collected during the expedition sent to report upon 
the routes proposed for the railway across the Isthmus of Panama — many 
the product of his ov/n collections, for I believe his labours as a field ento- 
mologist are not less than his talents and acumen as a closet naturalist. 
All this work has been done within the last few years, and it is still 
going on. We may hail Dr Leconte as one of the first living entomolo- 
gists ; and when we remember how comparatively scant a sympathy he 
has in his own country, the homage we pay him will only be the more 
hearty. Thanks to the Smithsonian Institution, we shall have most of Dr 
Leconte's works in our library. 
A portion of North America, possessing special interest from its resem- 
blance to a part of the opposite continent of Asia — I mean the Salt Lake 
region as compared with the Caspian district — has lately been somewhat 
opened. M. Lorquin, an able French entomologist, has made collections 
in that district, and they have reached Paris, and are in the hands of M. 
Boisduval, the lepidopterist. It is the Lepidoptera to which he chiefly 
restricts himself, and it is to them he specially refers in a notice of the 
collection given by him to the Entomological Society of France. He 
says, " Among these insects, many, although specifically new, have the 
aspect of those of the mountains of Europe, and especially of Siberia ; 
several even are identical with some of our species." 
Dr Asa Fitch, chiefly known as a zealous hemipterist, has lately brought 
out, under the auspices of the State Government of Pennsylvania, a work 
on the noxious insects of that State ; among which the habits of some 
Coleoptera are described. The care, accuracy, and perseverance shown 
in this work are very remarkable. 
Such is a hasty and imperfect account of what has been doing in the 
science of Entomology (department Coleoptera) for the last three years ; 
for its imperfections I now crave your apology. Imperfect, however, as 
it is, I think the impression which it must leave upon our minds is one of 
awe and amazement at the inexhaustible prolificness of Nature, and some- 
thing also of admiration for the courage with which puny Man has set 
