akticm; x\\ ii. 



Aotcs on the Classification of the Carabidx <>f il t , United States. By John /.. /.< Conie, 1/. /;. 



Read March 18, 1853. 



• 



The object of the present investigation is, an attempt to classify the great family of 

 Terrestrial Predaceous Coleoptera, in such a manner as to exhibit to Borne extent the 

 natural affinities of the genera among themselves, and to establish natural groups, which 

 may be recognised without the aid of sexual characters. In all the systems already pin- 

 posed, however natural may be the mode of division, it is frequently a matter <.f impossi- 

 bility to determine the genus, if the specimen should be a female; and in such cases we 

 have nothing to aid us except the empirical characters derived from the general appear- 

 ance of the insect. 



The first attempt to establish such natural divisions in the family of < arabid e is, appa- 

 rently, the arrangement proposed by Erichson in his yery philosophic and concise Kafer 

 dcr Mark Brandenburg. This arrangement, with a different subordination of characters, 

 and the introduction of some new considerations, forms the ground work of the classifica- 

 tion herein contained. The isolated groups have been carefully examined and commented 

 upon bvChaudoir, with great detad and accuracy, in various i asays contained m the Bulletin 



of thcSoc. Imp. des Xaturalistcs deMoscou: the great detail with which his descripl Ban 



made, enables the student to form a very clear idea of the true affinities of hi- gent ra, 

 although, perhaps, the dilferenccs upon which tiny are founded are occasional!) Buitable 

 rather to define a group of species, than a natural genus. 



The attempts at classification on the part of the French naturalists do ii"i appeal 

 to have been equally successful. The standard work of Dejean shows evidence "i 

 this by the continual doubts expressed as to whether species de» ribed should belong 

 to the genus in which they were placed, or to some oth< r. Sometimes the same doubl i- 

 show u about the position of a genus, or even of a group ol genera. The (.tin r French 

 llntomologists, with but few exceptions, have adopted the system "I Dejean, which was 

 based upon earlier observations of Latrcillc. The classification proposed bj Laporte in 

 his Etudes Entomologiques, makes several very necessarj innovations, bul In- cbaract< rs 

 arc in general too loose and faulty to be useful, although the groups Btl) app< ar natu- 

 ral. That ofBrulle* in the Suites a Bufi'on, possesses greal merit, from the cl< ami — "I 



