Skandinaviens Coleoptera, synoptiskt bearbetade af G. C.

Abstract

THERE are few investigations of more interest to the student of British Natural History than the comparison of our native productions with those of the Scandinavian peninsula, and no descriptive works published on the Continent, a knowledge of which is of greater importance to him, than those of the acute and laborious naturalists of Scandinavia and Denmark. The work done by these men is usually of the highest quality, both for carefulness of investigation and clearness of statement; and the great similarity which exists between the faunas and floras of our islands and of the Scandinavian region, enables their work to be used to a certain extent as handbooks by British Naturalists. May their study lead the latter to imitate the Scandinavian mode of work! We are led to these remarks by the receipt of the tenth and concluding volume of Prof. Thomson's descriptive work on the Scandinavian Coleoptera, although this consists almost entirely of corrections, emendations, and additions to the contents of the nine previous volumes, in which the systematic description of those insects was completed. Prof. Thomson's work will be found of the highest value to the British entomologist, inasmuch as a very large proportion of the insects described in it are inhabitants of these islands, and many of the others will probably be discovered hereafter in the north of Scotland. The whole descriptive portion of the book is written in Latin, the characters, although often brief, are admirably drawn up, and the determination of the species is greatly facilitated by the excellent tables both of genera and species given throughout the work. Amended tables, introducing all new forms discovered during the progress of the book, are given in the second part of the ninth and in the tenth volumes. Although it appears under a Swedish title, the only portions of the work written in that language are the notices of localities of occurrence and critical remarks on genera and species, the former, at any rate, requiring little knowledge of Swedish for their comprehension.