THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S 
WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
No. 68.] SATURDAY, JANUARY 16, 1858. [Price Id. 
PATIENCE. 
“ Patience is a virtue,” says the pro- 
verb, “ which very few possess.” We 
do not know how our readers fare in 
this respect, but, for our own part, we 
do not profess to be overstocked with 
the article. 
As we stated last week, after much 
waiting and many delays, we have re- 
ceived the first volume of M. Guenee’s 
* Geometrae.’ Now then what is to pre- 
vent us from setting to work to bring 
out the next number of the ‘Manual?’ 
The possession of the volume at once 
enables us to get to work and pre- 
pare the manuscript of the ‘ Manual ; ’ 
why should we not also go to press 
and publish ? 
The volume contains only about a 
hundred of our British Geometridse, 
i. e. considerably less than the half of 
them : one hundred species would not 
furnish material for three numbers of 
the ‘ Manual,’ and — when are we to 
expect M. Guenee’s second volume ? 
M. Guenee, when writing to us on 
the 21st of October, stated that “ the 
second volume is in the press, and 
will follow the first at a short inter- 
val.” Now what is the precise dura- 
tion of “ a short interval ” ? 
The readers of M. Guenee’s ‘ Noc- 
tuelites’ are well aware that that tribe 
of insects was divided by him into 
two groups, that the first group was 
next divided into sections, and that 
its first section was then further split 
into families (see * Manual,’ vol. i. pp. 
171, 172), and the characters of these 
were all given briefly at the com- 
mencement of the first volume of the 
‘ Noctuelites : ’ so that, from a perusal 
of these pages, it was quite easy to 
draw out a tabular synopsis of the 
groups, sections and families. 
With the ‘ Geometrae ’ the case is 
different ; they are not divided into 
groups or sections, but only into fa- 
milies, and no list of the families, 
nor any allusion to their characters, 
is given at the commencement of the 
volume before us. Now we are very 
loth to abandon the idea of giving 
a table of the families of the Geo- 
metrae, and of course this table we 
cannot construct till we get possession 
of M. Guenee’s second volume. The 
present volume contains eight Euro- 
pean families, viz. Urapterydce , JSnno- 
inidce, Amphidasydce , Boarmidcc, Bo- 
le/obidce, Geomelridce, Ephyridce and 
Acidalidee. We will consider the re- 
presentatives of these families in an 
early number. 
R 
