PREFACE. 



In 1901 when work was first seriously begun on the Eleodiini, 

 a bibhograpliy was prepared. The great conflagration in San 

 Francisco that followed the earthquake of 1906 destroyed the 

 California Academy of Sciences with its library, so that when the 

 present monograph was about completed there were no library 

 facilities at hand, nor was it possible for me to review the literature 

 elsewhere. The manuscript was therefore submitted for publication 

 without a fuial review. Accordingly Mr. E. A. Schwarz, the eminent 

 coleopterist at the U. S. National Museum, most kindly undertook 

 the task for me, and to him I extend my most sincere thanks for 

 the correction of the bibliography, for many suggestions, and for 

 rearranging certain parts of the work. 



In the text I have applied the term ''heterotype" to the individuals 

 that form the extremes of a specific or a varietal series. The hetero- 

 types therefore, represent the extreme modifications in size, form, 

 sculpturing, and color. The individuals connecting the extremes of a 

 series constitute the intermediates or ''mesotypes.'' Frequently 

 individuals of one species are observed to simulate those of another 

 species in form and sculpturing; an individual of this character has 

 been called an "amphitype." A unique, when serving as a type, is 

 spoken of as a ''monotype." Wlien more than one or a series of 

 mdividuals serve as a basis for a specific or varietal description, they 

 are referred to as "poly types;" if a male and female serve they are 

 "sexitypes;" otherwise they are "co-types." 



Furthermore, in order to systematically deal with the many minor 

 degrees of divergencies exhibited by individuals that are presumably 

 the progeny of parents specifically or racially identical, I have deemed 

 it conservative and scientific to recognize incipient races and incipient 

 subraces. In accordance with that view I have used the name forma 

 to make it possible to relatively define aggregations of individuals 

 possessing some particular or salient characteristic; it is believed that 

 these divergent characters have arisen through local or general cli- 

 matic or environmental conditions acting upon the progeny of parents 

 specifically or racially identical. 



