HATCH: COLEOPTERA 559 



There is no opportunity here to review the numerous modifications that have 

 been suggested in the Seidlitz-Ganglbauer classification. Abdomen, wing vena- 

 tion, male genitalia, female genitalia, head structure, larval structure have sev- 

 erally been explored for clues regarding the natural classification of the Coleop- 

 tera. The impression that one draws from such work is that the different special 

 studies pretty much cancel each other out, and that the final word is still to 

 be said.^ 



One of the most influential coleopterists at the middle of the second century 

 of European coleopterology was Edmund Reitter (b. 1845, d. 1920). Beginning 

 in 1878 Reitter wrote or edited, usually as a reprint series, the Bestimmungs- 

 Tabellen der Europaischen Coleopteren. Some 123 numbers of this series, cover- 

 ing most of the families, had appeared by 1942. Eventually Reitter published 

 one of our finest beetle faunas, the Fauna Germanica, Vols. I-V (1908-1916), 

 with 168 colored plates illustrating about 2,775 species. With its 1935 Nachtrag 

 by Adolf Horion, it is still the standard reference work on central European 

 beetles. Another comprehensive faunal work for an important area is Porta's 

 Fauna Coleopterorum Italica, 5 vols. (1923-1932), and its Supplementum I, 

 (1934), and II (1949). 



The classificatioin of beetle larvae is a difficult problem. Many species lead 

 secretive lives, and their identity must usually be established in the first instance 

 by rearing. As yet only the commoner species are known, even in Europe and 

 America, but these are numerous enough so that diagnostic characters and keys 

 have been worked out for the commoner genera and some of the species in most 

 of the larger families, with the rather noteworthy exception of the Staphylinidae. 



Studies of larval beetles, in the period under review, started with Chapuis 

 and Candeze's Catalogue des larves des CoUopteres (Mem. Soc. Sci. Liege, 

 VIII : 341-653, 1855). In 1880, M. Rupertsberger (Biol. Kaf. Eur., 295 pp.) 

 listed 1,300 European species, the larvae of which were known, a figure that he 

 increased to 1,700 in 1894 (Biol. Lit. Kaf. Eur. von. 1880 an, 310 pp.). In 1891 

 W. Beutenmuller (Journ. New York Micr. Soc, VII:l-52) cited 372 North 

 American species, the larvae of which had been noted; and in 1935 J. S. Wade 

 {A Coiitrihution to a Bihliograpky of the Described Immature Stages of North 

 American Coleoptera, 114 pp.) listed 1,063 species. Among the more noteworthy 

 works on larvae were: J. C. Schi^dte's (b. 1815, d. 1884) De Metamorphosi Eleu- 

 theratorum (1861-1888), with its 88 beautiful copper plates; M. E. Ferris' (b. 

 1808, d. 1872) Larves de CoUopteres (1877); A. G. Boving (b. 1869) and F. C. 

 Craighead's (b. 1890) Illustrated Synopsis of the Principal Larval Forms of the 

 Order Coleoptera (1931); and the section on Coleoptera in A. Peterson's (b. 

 1888) Larvae of Insects. Part II (1951). Recent keys to the families of larvae 

 are found in Peterson's book and in F. I. Van Emden's "Larvae of British 

 Beetles. III. Key to the Families" (Entom. Mo. Mag. LXXVIII :206-226, 253- 

 272, 1942). 



Meanwhile European coleopterists have been engaged in a continual assault 

 on the foreign faunas. The museums in Paris, London, Berlin, Vienna, and else- 



3. Noteworthy recent classifications are by Jeannel and Paulian, Rev. Fr. Ent. XI, 

 65-110, 1944; liliewise expounded by these authors in Grasse's Traite de Zool. IX : 892- 

 1069, 1949; and that by R. A. Crowson being published currently in the Entomologists' 

 Monthly Magazine. 



