COLEOPTERA. 
Ill 
new names only, old friends in novel attire. But here was the 
rub; and I must frankly admit that had not two kind friends 
opportunely stepped in at this juncture to my assistance, I 
should have abandoned my project in despair; for, in the 
greater number of these lists the contributors had entirely 
omitted to append an author’s name to the specific titles. 
How far I ultimately succeeded in this division, admitting 
the first and rejecting the second, I leave my readers, and 
more especially the authors of the notices aforesaid, to decide. 
Another difficulty I encountered, chiefly among the Curcu - 
lionidce , was the occurrence of names registered during the 
transitional state of the nomenclature, in genera not yet re¬ 
vised, or rather the revision of which has not yet been pub¬ 
lished, by Mr. Walton, and concerning which I should 
inevitably have committed several ridiculous blunders had 
not the cabinets of Messrs. Stevens and Wollaston set me 
aright. And here I would earnestly appeal to the gentleman, 
to whom, for the last fifteen years, all engaged in the acqui¬ 
sition and study of British Coleoptera have, I believe with¬ 
out exception, hastened to communicate the rarities or 
novelties with which industry and perseverance, and on 
which success is invariably the attendant, has rewarded 
them,—to whom all have silently but anxiously looked for 
the accomplishment of the promise given nearly twelve 
years since,* but which, up to the present time, has been so 
sparingly and intermittently carried out: not that I would 
utter a single word in depreciation of leisurely investigation, 
of which there is unfortunately palpably too great a lack in 
many of the entomological essays of the present day, and 
in which the characteristic of this precipitate go-ahead age 
is a predominant feature; but, considering that the eighth of 
* Annals and Magazine of Natural History, vol. xiii. p. 81, February, 
1844. 
