LXXVIIT 
capite longiore angustiore, antennis haud villosis, articulo 1° cras- 
siore, elytris magis parallelis, apice simul acuminatis, sat fortiter 
punctato-substriatis distincta. — Zanzibar. 
Le Secrétaire analyse une note en langue anglaise qui vient de 
nous être adressée par notre collègue M. Sharp. C’est une liste des 
espèces de Lucanides propres à la Nouvelle-Zélande, rectifiant les 
erreurs où, d'après lui, sont tombés plusieurs auteurs quant à la 
place de ces genres et espèces. 
Appelée à décider si cette note sera publiée sous la forme d’une 
traduction française ou textuellement en anglais, l'Assemblée se 
prononce pour la publication en langue anglaise. 
NOTES ON THE NOMENCLATURE OF NEW ZEALAND LUCANIDEÆ. 
I understand that in continuation of the valuable series of Cata- 
logues of Coleoptera published by this Society, one of the members 
has undertaken the Lucanidæ, and in order to facilitate his task, 
I give herewith the results of some researches into the nomencla- 
ture of the New Zealand species of the family about which a good 
deal ofconfusion prevails. The importance of correct nomenclature 
is well shown by the history of a slight error occurring in the list 
of New Zealand Coleoptera published by professor Hutton, some 
years ago; in this list, an Oxyomus, that should have been the 
first species of the family Scarabæidæ, was, by a slight error, 
made to appear as the last of the ZLucanidæ, and has since been 
treated by writers on New Zealand entomology as a real Lucanid, 
so that Wallace in his valuable work on the Geographical Distri- 
bution of Animals (vol. I, p. 457), has been misled into stating 
that in New Zealand » the Lucanidæ are represented by two 
peculiar genera Dendroblax and Oxyomus ». It is scarcely neces- 
sary to add that Oxryomus is (or was; for it is, like nearly all gene- 
rie names, a term of constantly shifting value) a very widely 
distributed genus outside ofNew Zealand, but does not really occur 
in New Zealand at all, and is moreover not a genus of Zucanide 
at all. 
In the Manual of New Zealand Coleoptera recently issued by the 
Colonial Museum and Geological Survey Department of New Zea- 
land,twelve species of Lucanidæ are enumerated, and five of these 
are assigned to the genus » Dorcus Mac Leay », three of these sup- 
posed Species of Dorcus being describel as new. I think it pro- 
bable, however, that these species of Dorcus may belong:to the 
genus Lassotes. 
Broun appears to have been unacquainted with the work done in 
