Transactions of the Linnean Society of London/Volume 12/A Century of Insects, including several new Genera described from his Cabinet

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Upon the different Species of esculent Strawberries

Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, Volume 12

Chapter 27: A Century of Insects, including several new Genera described from his Cabinet by William Kirby

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2647176Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, Volume 12 — Chapter 27: A Century of Insects, including several new Genera described from his CabinetWilliam Kirby (1759-1850)

XXVII.⁠A Century of Insects, including several new Genera described from his Cabinet.⁠By the Rev. William Kirby, M.A. F.R. and L.S.

Read November 4, 1817.

The infinite host of non-descript insects occurring in the entomological cabinets of this country, is rather disgraceful to us: and what is more so, we permit foreigners to do that for us which we are fully competent to do ourselves. Witness the numbers described by Fabricius, Olivier, and others from British collections.

Pudet hæc opprobria nobis
Et dici potuisse et non potuisse refelli.

I am not, however, so illiberal as to wish that the entomologists of the continent should be excluded from our cabinets: if we ourselves are too idle, or too busy, to give the public some account of our entomological treasures, it is for the interest of science that they should do it for us.

To remove, in some degree, this opprobrium, I beg leave to offer to the Linnean Society descriptions of a century of the non-descript insects of my own cabinet. Should this attempt meet with approbation, I may be induced, perhaps, to decribe the remainder; and I wish that my example may stimulate other gentlemen to do the same with respect to their own collections.

Long. Corp. lin. 63/4.

Habitat in Brasilia.⁠D. Hancock.

Corpus fusco-rufum, glabrum, laeve, obscurum. Caput elevatum: cornu oculigero brevissimo bidentato: dentibus distantibus. Thorax postice tuberculis binis dorsalibus elevatis, in margine punctis elevatis pallidis. Puticia quaedam alia elevata in thorace notanda. Pedes elongati. Coxa: post ica extus spina elongata apice furcata terminantur. Trochanteres et femora postica spinosa: spinis pluribus longitudine variis; unica prope basin elongata hinc emarginata. Sternum tricarinatum. Abdomen apertum: segmentis dorsalibus punctis elevatis callosis albis notatis.

Var, ^. Abdoraine subtus fusco rufoque marmorato.

scaber. 100. G. cornu oculigero bifido, thoracis disco seriatim tuberculato, coxis posticis spina apice recurva. Long. Corp. lin. 33/4.

Habitat in Brasilia.⁠D. Hancock.

Corpus griseuni, obscurum, subtus subsetosum et granulis scabrum. Caput cornu oculigero elevato apice bispinoso. Thorax postice tuberculis quatuor oblongis niagnis: anteripribus minoribus, aliisque quatuor parvis hemisphasricis, per paria longitudinaliter ordinatis. In margine laterali et angulis posticis puncta elevata pallida fere ocelliformia. Coxa postica spinis externis apice recurvis. Femora postica spinosissima: spina elongata basis apice diffracta. Abdomen fere verticale, baud retractum, scabrum.