228 MR. CURTIS ON HYPOCEPHALUS, A GENUS OF COLEOPTERA. 



of their agency, but at all events of disturbing forces, which have apparently succeeded 

 one another from the beginning of the world, and are active still. We ought not there- 

 fore to be more surprised at finding systems not to be perfect, than we are to find that 

 sound is not free from discord, nor form from distortion. 



Perfection seems to be equivalent to harmony ; and this as regards form, which most 

 concerns us at present, was best understood by the Greeks. It consists of a combination 

 of parts, whose relative proportions are so perfectly in harmony in every respect, that the 

 object becomes pleasing to the eye, even when uncultivated ; it leads the mind to the 

 contemplation of a type of grace and beauty exceeding our daily experience, and thus the 

 Grecian sculpture has become the standard of taste. The human heart is greatly affected 

 by harmony : Poetry, Music and Painting bear ample testimony to its influence. Order 

 and arrangement are component parts of harmony, for without them no system could 

 exist. 



A knowledge therefore of the component members of bodies and the harmonious com- 

 bination of them is, or ought to be, the basis of all arrangements, and the closer we keep 

 this in view the more true to nature, and the more satisfactory will the system be, because 

 it will make everything subservient to true affinities. But in our progress to establish a 

 system we are sure to find disturbing forces, producing aberrant types of form, which like 

 discordant notes in music, will not chime in anywhere ; they are too flat for some chords, 

 too sharp for others, and are thought to be anything but consistent with our notions 

 of what is natural. Now to this description of animals belongs the anomalous beetle 

 which Mr. White introduced to us, and which he has been so obliging as to allow me to 

 examine at my leisure. It has received the name of Hypocephalus, and resembles so many 

 individual members of different families, yet agreeing with none, that it has from its first 

 discovery been a subject of speculation, in which M. Desmarest, Dr. Gistl, Dr. Burmeister, 

 M. Guerin-Meneville and Mr. Westwood have taken part. 



I should say, it has the head of a Tortoise, the tusks of a Walrus, the legs of a Kangaroo, 

 and certainly the strength of a giant ; probably a hundred times greater in proportion to 

 its size than that of an Elephant. Amongst Insects it has been likened to the Mole- 

 cricket, and so deceptive are analogies, that when I first beheld the Hypocephalus at 

 Florence, I thought it was a gigantic Brenthus*. M. Desmarest considered it allied to 

 the Silphidce or Grave-digging beetles, and Dr. Burmeister and Mr. Westwood are agreed 

 that it is allied to the Cerambycidce. Were it not for the deficiency in the number of the 

 palpi, there would be no difficulty in associating it with the Scaritidce : the head and legs 

 being very like those of Basimachus, and the antennae being nearly those of Bsammo- 

 philus ; whilst the robust legs, large head, ample postpectus and remote hind legs of 

 Caladroum (a New Holland Carabus) at once exhibit a great resemblance t- 



It is evident, in making any attempt to associate an aberrant form with a natural family, 

 that great caution is necessary, not to be influenced by analogy, beyond what it is worth, 



* It is remarkable that some of the Brenthidee have the hinder angles of the head produced in the male, as in 

 Arrhenodes, where they form lobes, smaller in proportion, but of the same character as those exhibited in Hypoce- 

 phalus, which would altogether indicate a similarity of economy. 



f Vide also Clivina, and Broscus ; and Promecoderus has quite the form of a pigmy Hypocephalus. 



