IFURTHER STUDIES IN THE CICINDELID^ 



One of the more difficult problems confronting the taxonomist is 

 the determination of relationship between the various groups of 

 Coleoptera which are higher than the genus, and the manifold dif- 

 ferences of opinion correspond with the uncertainties involved. 

 Relationships formerly unsuspected, as for instance those affiliating 

 many of the groups of the former Clavicornia with widely separated 

 families of Caraboidea, Serricornia and Heteromera, have become 

 generally recognized and have caused in several cases radical re- 

 arrangements of the series of families. Another point to be noted 

 is the general tendency to increase the number of family groups, as 

 well as the number of subfamilies constituting the older families. 

 In the Carabidae, as an example, groups which were given tribal 

 designation by LeConte and Horn are now considered to be rather 

 subfamilies than tribes, the latter term being used, very conven- 

 iently in most instances, to designate subordinate groups in such 

 large complexes as the Harpalinae. In view of these facts, the 

 reduction of the long established and habitally isolated Cicindelidae 

 to the status of a subfamily of Carabidae, seems inconsistent. In 

 the opinion of the writer the Cicindelidae should remain a distinct 

 family group in the great superfamily or suborder Caraboidea, 

 which will include, besides, many other groups of family weight, 

 represented at the present time by subordinate groups, such for 

 example as those based upon Omophron and Pseudomorpha, as 

 well as Amphizoa and others already recognized as constituting 

 families. 



This leads naturally to a consideration of the meaning of the 

 word species. There is a marked and seemingly increasing tend- 

 ency, among a large and influential body of systematists, to enhance 

 the value of the species, to such a degree in fact that in many cases 

 what is termed a species is really a subgenus. This is not obligatory 

 and, in most cases, positively contradicts the actual truth of nature 

 as it is revealed to more careful observers. Since under the term 

 species, with such artificially exalted scope, it is necessary to have 

 T. L. Casey, Mem. Col. VII. Oct. 1916. 



