THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 175 



different limits to those adopted by European writers at that time (1861), 

 and constituted it of the three following sub-families, which are here more 

 fully defined : 



Middle coxae distant, epipleurae wanting — Lycid^. 



Middle coxae contiguous, epipleurae usually wide at base, episterna of 

 metathorax with inner margin sinuate — Lampyrid^e. 



Middle coxae contiguous, epipleurae narrow at base, episterna of meta- 

 thorax not sinuate on inner margin — Telephorid^e. 



A detail of the minor groups and tribes composing these families 

 would be here out of place, and may be found in my Classification ; they 

 will be fully exposed in a synopsis of the genera and species now ready 

 for press. Otherwise, the habits and life history of a few species have 

 been more or less thoroughly observed and recorded. 



For the past few years I "have been trying to procure material to enable 

 me to make a more complete synopsis of the genera and species, and a 

 better exposition of their relations to each other than I had been able 

 previously to give.* 



For furnishing series of larvae, pupae and imagines of species from her 

 vicinity, I am under especial obligations to Mrs. V. O. King, of Austin, 

 Texas. An excellent account of the transformations of Pleotomus pallens 

 from her pen has been printed in Psyche hi., 51 (1880), and equally 

 valuable life-histories of other species may be expected in the future. 



I congratulate myself, that by the slow progress of my studies and the 

 tardy manner in which some of my correspondents have replied to my 

 request for larger series of specimens, I am now able to profit by the 

 recent publications of Mr. C. O. Waterhouset on Lycidae, and Rev. H. 

 S. Gorham || on Lampyridae. 



The object of the present essay is simply to give some popular infor- 

 mation in regard to the characters of these insects, and to correlate, so far 

 as our species may permit, the light-giving faculty with other structures ; I 

 will, therefore, not enter here into a close analysis of the relations of the 

 genera. 



: I would here mention that no reference is made in the text to the important 

 general work of Lacordaire, or the excellent faunal European work of DuVal, in which 

 the genera have been tabulated in a convenient manner, but without special reference to 

 our species, except what has been derived from my own works cited above. 



* Br. Mus. Cat. Illustrations; Coleoptera, Part 1, Lycida>, 1879. 



II Trans. Ent. Soc. London, 1880, p. 1, 63, 83, and Proc. loc. cit. infra. 



