Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia, Volume 2 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 414 pages of information about Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia, Volume 2.

Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia, Volume 2 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 414 pages of information about Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia, Volume 2.

(Footnote.  Linnean Transactions 6 pages 185 to 206, tab. 19 to 21 1802.  Descriptions of some Singular Coleopterous Insects by Charles Schreibers, M.D., Deputy Professor of Natural History in the University of Vienna.  Lucanus aeneus (Lamprima Latr.) Scarabaeus proboscideus (Elephastomus Macleay).  Cetonia philipsii (Schizorhina Kirby) Silpha lachrymosa (Ptomaphila Hope).  Clerus fasciculatus.  Prionus lepidopterus (Tragocerus Dejean) Cerambix giraffa (Gnoma) Cer. fichtelii (Enicodes G.R.  Gray) Scarites schroetteri (Hyperion Lap.) all new, and a singular Brasilian genus, Scarabaeus dytiscoides (near Anamnesis Vigors and supposed to be the Eucranium arachnoides Dejean Cat. page 150 ed 1837) are all admirably described and figured here.)

(**Footnote.  Linnean Transactions 9 pages 283 to 295, tab. 24 to 25 1808.  Description of Notoclea, a new genus of Coleopterous Insects from New Holland by Thomas Marsham, Esquire.  Tr.  L.S.  This contains 20 species, some of which however had been previously described by Olivier under Paropsis, the appellation now universally applied to this “convex-backed” genus.  The Reverend William Kirby in a note added the more latent characters.)

As New Holland became colonized and settlements increased Entomology was not altogether neglected, for we find a resident, John W. Lewin, A.L.S., of Paramatta, New South Wales, in 1805, publishing an elegant and curious quarto volume of plates in which he describes many species of crepuscular and nocturnal Lepidoptera, in most cases figuring the insects in all their stages; it is highly to be regretted that this interesting work was not continued, and it is to be feared that want of encouragement alone prevented the industrious and acute author from persevering in the design of his work, which the title he gave it* shows he intended to have made of a general nature on the subject.  The accounts of the habits of Cryptophasa and Agarista are peculiarly interesting, and it is much to be wished that some of the many entomologists now in New Holland and the islands of the Pacific Ocean would publish similar notes (however short) on the habits, etc., of the insects they may find.

(Footnote.  Prodromus, etc., Natural History of Lepidopterous Insects of New South Wales, collected, engraved, and faithfully painted after nature by J.W.L. etc.  London 1805 4to.)

Dr. Robert Brown, when on Flinders’ voyage, collected many interesting insects which were described by Kirby in the 12th volume of the Linnean Transactions.* Several specimens were deposited by this celebrated botanist in the British Museum.  We find Dr. Leach commencing the description of New Holland insects in his Zoological Miscellany; and Macleay in his Horae Entomologicae described many curious Lamellicornes.  Since that time the communication with the great South Continent has been so uninterrupted that collections have been continually coming to Europe, and scarcely a ship now arrives without some additions being made to this branch of science.

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