a Gib 
b bib 
v. LD 
INTRODUCTION. 
Tue Malacodermata are an assemblage of Coleoptera forming the second half of 
Latreille’s group “Serricornes,” and include (as adopted in this volume), in addition 
to the “‘Malacodermes” of M. Lacordaire’s ‘‘Genera des Coléoptéres,” the families 
Cleride, Lymexylonide, Ptinide, Bostrychide, and Cioide. Although, perhaps, some 
exception may be taken to the term Malacodermata as being inapplicable to these 
latter families, which have in general the integuments as hard as they are in most 
Coleoptera, there yet can, I think, be no doubt as to the propriety of uniting them all 
as one aggregate in a work which, like the present one, treats of a whole fauna. The 
most obvious character, which all possess in common with the other Serricorn Coleo- 
ptera, is the frequency with which the antenne have their joints developed on their 
inner sides in such a manner that their articulations become serrate or pectinate. This 
general character is, it is true, subject to much variation, but the variations are of 
degree; the antenne are sometimes flabellate on one or on both sides, or they are 
simply pectinate, or give rise to long filiform processes, or they are clavate, the three 
terminal joints being longer or altogether much larger than the rest, or rarely (as in 
Ptinus) they are simple; but the fact remains that in each of the families we find 
genera reproducing the typical form.- The authors of Monographs of the separate 
families, in dealing with their classification, appear often to have given undue import- 
ance to characters which do not hold good for more than two or three of the families, 
important though they are without doubt in characterizing these lesser associations. 
It has not been found necessary or useful here to adopt generalizations such as the 
“ Appendicitarses” of Spinola, or the ‘ Mollipennes,” “ Floricoles,” and “ Gibbicolles ” 
of Mulsant. 
‘Two families, it will be noticed, are absent from our fauna, viz. the Drilide and the 
Cupeside, both of small extent; but of these, the latter, consisting of one abnormal 
a2 
