NORTH AMERICAN COLEOPTERA. 



A monograplt of the species of the snb-faniilies EUCIVE- 



MIN^, CEROPHYTIX.E and PEROTHOPIN^ 



inhabiting the ITnited f§ttates. 



BY GEORGE H. HORN, M. D. 



After the grand monograph of the Eucnemides completed by de 

 Bonvouloir, in 1875, the present essay seems almost unnecessary, but 

 to the vast majority of our students the book is inaccessible. 



As might have been expected a small number of our species re- 

 mained unknown to de Bonvouloir, which are in their correct places 

 in the following pages, and in addition four have been described 

 since, while ten new ones, besides, have been collected. 



Regarding the status of the species treated there has been some 

 difference of opinion. In the early days of the science the Eucne- 

 mides were considered Elateridae and a number described as Elater, 

 later in the posthumous work of Latreille we find them recognized 

 as a tribe of Elateridae. In a synopsis of the Eucnemides (Proc. 

 Acad. 1852, p. 45) Dr. LeConte uses the following words : " Although 

 many entomologists consider that the small group of Coleopterous 

 insects herein treated constitute a peculiar family I am under the 

 necessity, after very careful examination, of viewing them as a mere 

 section of the extensive natural family of Elateridae, and no more 

 entitled to a distinct place in the series than any other group of 

 genera in that family." The same ideas were repeated the next year 

 in his " Revision of the Elateridae" (Trans. Am. Philos. Soc. x). 



It Avas not until 1857 that Lacordaire recognized the Eucnemidae 

 and Elateridae as families of equivalent standing with the Buprestidae. 

 This view was finally adopted liy Dr. LeConte in the first edition of 

 the " Classification," and de Bonvouloir follows in accord excluding, 

 however, Perothops from the Eucnemidae as a troublesome element 

 without definitely assigning it a place. 



Realizing these difficulties it was suggested by me (Trans. Am. 

 Ent. Soc. vii, 1879, p. xxi) that Cerophytum and Perothops should 

 be isolated, and that the term Elateridae should be so extended as to 

 embrace the aberrant forms, those to be considered sub-families. The 

 relations of these various series to each other are fully explained in 

 the " Classification" of the Coleoptera of N. A. edit. 2, and need not 

 here be dwelt upon. 



