400 REVISION OP THE ELATERID^ 



Seve al of these artificial groups were elaborated by the editor, in the five volumes of 

 the work just mentioned, while Erichson lent his assistance by monographing those with 

 serrate ungues, and those with truncate prosternal spine. 



A number of artificial genera have been constructed by various entomologists, who, 

 however, with the exception of Kirby, in the Fauna Toreali Americana, have not suggested 

 any ideas re p< cting the classification of the species.* 



The gonera found in Austria have been carefully described by Redtenbacher in his 

 Fauna Ausfriaca, but unfortunately with the tendency to adopt (he large number of 

 genera founded by Eschscholtz on unimportant characters. 



The group of Eucnemides has been revised as a separate family, by Mr. Guerin, in 

 th • Ai n i'es de 'a Societe Entomologique dc France, (ser. 2d., vol. 1,) where numerous very 

 gross errors of Mr. Laporte are corrected. 



More recently, Mr. Solier, in the fauna of Chili by Claudio Gay, has described a 

 large number of South American species, which he has distributed into a large number of 

 new genera founded upon the form of the mandibles, mentum, and the proportions of the 

 joints of the antennae. As no reference is made to the labours of previous investigators, 

 and as care is taken to avoid all mention of the parts of the body, which served as the 

 basis of earlier classifications, the result of this has been to produce confusion, which can 

 only be removed by the comparison of the actual types of the genera established by 

 Mr. Solier with those already known. I may also add, from the study of our native 

 species, that the characters upon which Mr. Solier relies, especially those derived 

 from the form of the mandibles, arc difficult to perceive, and when perceived are of no 

 value, since they vary in species which arc certainly closely allied. I am happy to con- 

 firm my own opinion about this matter, by that already expressed by my friend, Dr. 

 Schaum, in his report on the progress of Entomology during 1851, in Troschel's Archiv. 

 From the impossibility of identifying any of Mr. Solier's genera, I have avoided express- 

 ing any opinion of them in the following pages. 



Such being a brief sketch of the previous investigations made in this family, I have next 

 to return my grateful acknowledgments to Dr. Mclshcimer for the kind assistance ren- 

 dered me by the loan of the typical specimens of all the species described by him: and to 

 Dr. T. W. Harris for the loan of several types of species described by Say, and, also, 

 for several very interesting nondescript species from his collection. 



The descriptions in the following pages arc usally diagnoses of the species, as the spe- 

 cific characters in most of the genera are very clear and well-defined. In the genera Pe- 

 detes, Elater, and Cratonychus, such is not the case, the species being difficult of recogni- 

 tion, even when typical specimens are before the student. Long and laboured descrip- 

 tions in such cases arc of no avail, and only tend to confuse; in those genera, I have 

 thought, it better to make the diagnosis include a description of all those parts of the body, 

 which, alter close comparison of all the species, I have found subject to change of form 



* In the Brsl volume ol the Zoological Journal, there is ;i Monograph <<i Cebrionidse, by Mr. \V. E. Leach, in which 

 several species are noted as occurring in North America. As ii is unfortunately no1 possible to recognise any "I' them, 

 the e a} will nol !"■ refei red i" in the follow ing pa ;i . 



