448 
THE MEDITERRANEAN NATURALIST 
anyone believe that the necessity of repeating 
them at certain intervals has no longer been felt? 
Or can any one say that our gardeners have a 
sufficient knowledge about agronomy, horticulture 
and entomology so necessary an accomplishment 
for them, or that our gardens and fields have been 
much improved by this neglect? I do not think a 
single person will venture to say so, amidst the 
outcry which is now being raised against the 
miserable state into which our agriculture has 
fallen. 
To return to my subject. Though the biblio- 
graphy of our Coleoptei a is so very scanty, there is 
little doubt that collections of Maltese beetles 
have been made at different times, and we know 
that Mr. Leach and Dejean have collected in our 
Islands, and still later also Messrs Mamo, Schembri 
Prof. Gulia, Father Libassi, Fauvel, DeLaGarde, 
Walker and Pool. We regret that we have no re- 
cords of these collections which have had so much 
valuable time and labour spent upon them, and this 
chiefly owing to the carelessness of those in whose 
charge some of our older ones, such as those of 
Mamo, Schembri and Gulia, were placed, and 
who suffered them to decay and waste awry. 
This has brought us to the regre table fact that at 
present not a single collection of Maltese insects 
exists in any of the public museums of Malta, 
except some traces of Libassi’s collection at the 
University Museum. 
Under such circumstances it would be unwise 
to attempt to give a complete list of the beetles 
found in Malta. Much time is required, before 
anything satisfactory can be done in this line. 
What everyone could do is to further the study of 
Maltese beetles noting down and publishing perso- 
nal experiences in collecting. For this reason I 
have thought that a few words on our common 
beetles might not be devoid of interest to entomo- 
logists and students of our insect fauna. 
I have for a long time been cherishing the idea 
of publishing a detailed catalogue of all the species 
collected by me in our Islands, but I find that 
there are yet too many gaps to be filled up, too 
many doubts to be explained and much more 
work to be done before such a list would have the 
exactness necessary even for a first contribution 
to a thorough study of our beetles. 
I will therefore in this note refer only to such 
species as are seen by everybody and which may 
be readily collected. 
As to their determination I am much indebted 
to the kindness of Mr. Reitter of Paskau to whom 
I have sent specimens of every species collected, 
and to whose authority I refer. 
Locally the species I mention offer but little 
interest, because as I have already said, they are 
almost all frequent or common forms, but in 
relation to the Coleoptera of the region some of 
them are of marked interest and are considered 
either as rare forms or as endemic to these 
Islands. 
At all events I am certain from my experience 
that if it be only on account of the correct deter- 
minations of the species, these few. hints may be 
of some aid to the beginner who just at his first 
starting often stumbles in the great puzzle of 
naming his captures. 
I cannot pass over in silence the • difficulty 
I met with when 1 first began my collection. 
Persons who live in great cities and have every 
opportunity to compare their specimens with 
vast museum collections and to refer to standard 
books of regional entomology, w r ho go over again 
the well known tracks which so many of their 
predecessors have carefully prepared for them 
can hardly imagine the difficulties which the 
entomologist comes across in our. small islands 
and the length of time required for the work 
which has to be done alone. On the other hand 
I must say that in the exploration of such a 
virgin field, in the laborious task of collecting, 
setting and studying the specimens collected, in 
the consequent eorres] ondence with competent 
authorities about correct naming, and in the 
pleasant work of drawing the first lines of our 
Coleoptero-fauna I have spent some of the hap- 
piest days of my life. Not that our beetles are 
remarkable for bright colours, or extraordinary 
forms, on the contrary they present on the whole 
a rather dull appearance and can never compare 
favourably with the rich insect fauna of Sicily or 
the Islands of the Levant; but if entomological 
pursuits are a very genial work for all insect- 
hunters and lovers of nature in countries wliere 
every inch of ground has been explored, they are 
undoubtedly much more interesting and delightful 
