4 Rev. F. W. Hope on the II. 0)1 the Entomology of China, loith Descriptions of the new Species sent to England hy Dr. Cantor from Chusan and Canton. By the Rev. F. W. Hope, F.R.S. &c. [Read 7 March, 1842.] Very little is known of the Entomology of China. Our countryman Donovan, in the year 1798, published a quarto volume containing descriptions of twenty-five Coleoptera, besides various insects of other Orders. It is, I believe, the only work exclusively devoted to Chinese insects. The descriptions of the species, according to the taste of that day, are decidedly too laconic, so much so that without the accompanying plates it would be difficult in several instances to recognize the insects intended. The plates, however, are well worthy of Donovan, and exhibit a richness of colouring which has rarely, if ever, been surpassed. In the continental works of Entomologists some Chinese insects occasionally will be found described, but the number is but small. I believe that in the catalogue of the Baron De Jean scarcely 100 species are noticed as occurring there ; now, allowing another century of species to be included in the writings of other authors, we shall then have the paltry amount of 200 Coleoptera, which are all that can be mentioned as inhabiting one of the most considerable of eastern empires. It should here be mentioned that a large pro-portion of East Indian insects are common to China, and there-fore the number of known species might be greatly increased. That the Chinese Fauna will eventually prove to be rich cannot be doubted. As to the number of species and abundance of indi-viduals no paucity will ever be discovered. It may then fairly be deduced from the foregoing remarks, that we know scarcely any-thing of China entomologically. The acquisition therefore of fifty new Coleoptera is certainly an important addition to that Fauna. Sorry am I to add that the bulk of these were collected by Dr. Cantor just after a recovery from the Chusan fever, with which he was severely attacked. " Tliey are," as he states in his letters, " chiefly from two localities, Chusan and Canton, and I could wish that they were more numerous and valuable. No one can form an idea what I suffered in collecting them, and, when collected, the difficulty of keeping them from mould and accident w-as no trifling matter. Pray let them be described, if it is only to con-vince others that zeal for science and assiduity on my part have not been wanting." In accordance with Dr. Cantor's wisli I have described fifty new Coleoptera. Dr. Horsfield has kindly undei--
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