APPENDIX F.
Notes on some Insects from King George's Sound, collected and presented to the British Museum by CAPTAIN GEORGE GREY, by ADAM WHITE, Esquire, British Museum, in a letter addressed to the author.
DEAR SIR,
Fabricius was the first, or among the earliest, Entomologists who described the Annulose animals of New Holland, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. At the time he published his Systema Entomologiae (1775) these parts of the world had been visited by but few persons, and I believe that all the species he described as coming from them he found in the collection which was made by Sir Joseph Banks and Dr. Solander on their well-known voyage with Captain Cook; that collection was presented to the Linnean Society of London. Several of the original specimens have been figured in the works of Olivier and Donovan, and it is perhaps unnecessary to say that modern Entomologists often refer to these specimens as the typical examples. As far as I am aware the next important addition to the Entomology of New Holland was made by Dr. Schreibers of Vienna,* which was followed by that of Mr. Marsham.** All the specimens described by these entomologists were most probably collected by travellers touching only at certain points on the coast.
(*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.)