1 08 REVIEWS. 



MacLeay, and the Bembididae of Stephens), as having been erected on an 

 untenable principle, and not possessing characters sufficiently distinctive to 

 entitle them to " a footing of equal importance with the Cieindelidae and 

 Carabidae ;" he thinks " that the most consistent and natural divisions will 

 be found in Latreilles's two grand families, Cicindeletes and Carabici (p. ix. 

 Prel Obs.)," which arrangement he has resumed under the terms Cicidelida) 

 and Carabidae, dividing the latter into five subfamilies — but in a matter of 

 such importance it will be better to let our author speak for himself. He 

 says (p. ix. Prel. Obs.) : — 



" I have, furthermore, divided the latter (the Carabidae) into five groups or sub- 

 families, according to the plan set forth hy Mr. Westwood, in his ' Introduction to 

 the Modern Classification of Insects,' with this difference, however, that I have 

 transposed the third and fourth groups, considering it more desirable that the Har- 

 palides should immediately precede the Bembidides ; and the natural transition 

 from Trechus to Bembidium he maintained through the intimate affinities which 

 subsist between those remarkable insects, Aepys marinus, Blemus areolatus, Lym- 

 naeum nigropiceum, and Cillenus lateralis ; and I have placed Pelophila and the 

 Elaphridea in their natural juxta-position with Nehria, though, by so doing:, the 

 foreign genus Homophron is farther removed from the Hydrocantharides ; to which, 

 at first view, and judging merely from its external structure, it would seem to be 

 more nearly allied than it really is ; in this arrangement I have, consequently, fol- 

 lowed, under certain modifications, Dejean, Erichson, Heer, Bedtenbacher, and, in 

 fact, most of the Continental entomologists. 



" The first group (Brachinides) comprises all the genera which were comprehended 

 in the family Brachinidas of MacLeay and Stephens, and corresponds with Dejean's 

 subfamily Truncatipennes. 



"The second group (Scaritides) corresponds with the Scaritides of Dejean, and 

 the family Scaritidae of MacLeay and Stephens. 



" The third group (Carabides) corresponds with the Simplicipedes of Dejean, 

 and comprises the Carabidge of MacLeay and Stephens, and the Elaphiridae of 

 Stephens." 



The characters given — " the anterior tibiae entire, and not notched ; 

 the anterior tarsi being more or less dilated in the male," seem not exactly 

 to correspond with those assigned by Stephens to the family Elaphridae 

 (Man. p. 4); " anterior tibiae not palmated, without a notch on the side, but 

 slightly notched at the apex; anterior tarsi not dilated in the males." But 

 it is observable that in his description of the genera comprised under this 

 family, there is not one instance of the anterior tarsi of the male being not 

 dilated (the nearest approach being in Notiophilus " male with three basal 

 joints of anterior tarsi " scarcely dilated"), so that they may fairly be cha- 

 racterised as " more or less dilated," according to Mr. Dawson's descrip- 

 tion ; and the " slight notch " at the apex of the anterior tibiae is not 

 invariable, and cannot, therefore, be relied on as distinctive. 



The fourth and fifth group, Harpalides and Bembidides, correspond re- 

 spectively with the Harpalidae of MacLeay and Stephens, and the Bembi- 

 didae, of Stephens. 



