DR. JOHN L. LFX'ONTE. XV 



them and not the Rhynchophora follow directly after the Heteromera, 

 and so relegating this remaining complex to the last place. 



This was the first serious disturbance of the accepted sequence of the 

 complexes, and one upon which it would appear that LeConte's claim to 

 highest distinction must ultimately rest with the world at large. It is 

 much, very much, that the system atization of the vast array of Cole- 

 optera of the United States may be said to be due wholly to his initiative 

 and very largely to his })ersonal studies and skill. But that he should 

 venture to disturb fundamentally that sy.stem which had been the out- 

 come of two generations of minute and patient investigation is, if it 

 eventually stand the test of criticism, the work of a master hand. It 

 goes, without saying, that he will never be forgotten for what he has done 

 for his field of science in this country. It remains to be seen, — for his 

 prime work has still to stand the test of time, — whether in future gen- 

 erations his fame shall be as great elsewhere as here. 



Consider now what must, in a sense, necessarily follow when a vast 

 complex like the Rhynchophora is removed bodily from the midst of a 

 series of complexes. It brings at once to the surface the question of the 

 mutual relations of the great complexes hitherto separated by the Rhyn- 

 cophora, and the whole fabric of classification must be narrowly investi- 

 gated. And now begins the co-operative work of master and disciple, or 

 rather we may now say the two colleagues, to which allusion was made in 

 the quotation above from Dr. Horn's notice of Dr. LeConte. Hereafter 

 we can speak of the work only as their joint production. Dr. Horn ac- 

 cepted fully in principle and in fact the views of Dr. LeConte concern- 

 ing the Rhynchophora. Indeed, as Dr. LeConte'states, the clew to his 

 primary divisions of the Rhynchophora proposed ten years ago was given 

 by an observation of Dr. Horn in his studies of certain Curculionidae. 

 These authors had together studied the structure and discussed the re- 

 lationship of a vast number of our Coleoptera; each was thoroughly 

 acquainted with and had tested the value of the work of the other. In 

 their two cabinets eleven thousand species of our beetles were at hand for 

 verification of disputed points. What better opportunity could oflfer for 

 such a joint work ? 



If now we compare the two editions of the work to see what changes 

 were made, conse<|uent upon the isolation of the Rhynchophora, we dis- 

 cover first of all that the Coccinellida? and allied families are removed 

 liodily from the Phytophaga with which they had from time immemorial 

 been placed, — a survival in fact of the purely tarsal system of classfica- 

 tion. — and placed in the clavicorn series. This indeed had been done by 



