44 
ENTOMOLOGICAL INTELLIGENCE. 
in French and sometimes both in French and Latin (whole 
pages of Latin descriptions, followed by a verbal translation in 
French), whilst sometimes the description is confined to a few 
lines. The only author who has followed the good old Linnsean 
plan of giving a short Latin specific character at the head of the 
description of each species is M. Rambm\ and even he has confined 
this to the first half of his volume, the remainder having only 
French descriptions. 
The last published volume is that on the Hemiptera, by Messrs. 
Aiuyot and Serville, in which Ave find fresh cause for desiring more 
uniformity in these works. The latter author has been so long and 
ad\\antageouslj" known as an author devoted to the study of the 
mandibulated and haustellated Hemiptera of Linnseus, and espe¬ 
cially by the publication of his volume on the Ortlioptera in this 
series, that Avhen Ave perceive the alterations in the style exhibited 
by the present volume, as contrasted Avith that last mentioned, 
Ave can but lament that an association with another author has 
evidently led to such modifications. 
The first matter treated upon in the introduction to the volume 
is the nature of Genera; and here Ave find the authors (perhaps 
unconsciously) adopting the argument made use of by Mr. Vigors 
in the Zoological Journal, namely, that ‘^un genre n’est pas autre 
chose qu’une division mdthodique venant immediatement au-dessus 
du dernier ddgre de division, qui est Pespece—tout ce qui est bon 
a faire une subdivision de genre, est bon a faire un genre; il con- 
vient de hii donner im nom appele gendrique.’’ p. vii. Hence 
every section and sub-section proposed amongst the Haustellated 
Hemiptera is here raised to the rank of a genus—the Linnsean genus 
Cimex being cutup into 340 genera, upwards of 150 of which are 
now first proposed and named. The authors strongly insist that 
such a plan is absolutely logical, but in one respect the result of 
their arrangement is anything but uniform; for instance, the genera 
of Pentatomides or Reduviides are distinguished from each other 
by characters of very slight importance, wliereas Acanthia, Hebrus, 
Hydrometra or Leptopus, notwithstanding the weight of their 
characters,, are only regarded as groups of equal A^alue, that (is as 
genera,) with these trivial groups. To maintain a series of grada¬ 
tional characters, and yet to deny it virtually by calling all these 
groups by one name, is not logical; thus Hy^drometra, Acanthia or 
Hebrus, ought not, on this principle, to be called genera, but tribes, 
