26 A. COTTAM — OTJE BEITISH BEETLES : 



true (membranous) wings. In many species the true wings are 

 absent, and when this is the case the elytra are usually soldered 

 together. 



The classification of the beetles is based upon their external 

 anatomy ; and although, within, the limits of this paper, it will be 

 impossible to do more than give the merest outline of the diifer- 

 ences in structure by which the system of classification is carried 

 out, I hope to be able to convey a general idea of the system. 



I can claim no originality for these notes. I am myself but a 

 novice in the study of this branch of entomology, but it is so in- 

 teresting, and so little seems to be commonly known about it, that 

 I am glad of the opportunity to endeavour to arouse an interest in 

 an order of insects that is veiy little studied. I take it that in 

 such societies as ours it should be an object to get workers in every 

 branch of Natural History, and as little or nothing seems yet to 

 have been done in working out the entomology of our county (with 

 the exception of the butterflies), there is a large and most inter- 

 esting field of work, in which I am anxious to fijid among our 

 members some fellow-explorers. 



Mr. Sydney Humbert and I have been doing what has lain in 

 our power during the last two years to work out something as to 

 our Coleopterous fauna, but we have not yet got very far. Indeed 

 I feel sure that it will take a good many years' work before we shall 

 be able to record even a fair number of our indigenous beetles, for 

 even my short experience in collecting has proved to me that in 

 any given neighbourhood species that may be taken in numbers 

 in one year will apparently disappear altogether for a time. In 

 my first year's collecting here I turned up some species in numbers 

 that I have not seen here since, while I am constantly taking fresh 

 species in places that I have worked repeatedly year after year. 

 So that I expect to record the capture of fresh species after eveiy 

 year's collecting for some time to come. 



To those who are inclined to take an interest in our beetles I can 

 confidently recommend Mr. Rye's most excellent ' Introduction to 

 the study of our British Coleoptera,' published by Lovell, Eeeve, 

 and Co. To that little book I am indebted for the greater part of 

 the information contained in these notes, and it is from that book 

 that I have taken the " sections " into which I have described the 

 British beetles as being divided. 



Insects — from the Latin insecia, " divided " — are so called be- 

 cause their bodies are formed of three distinct portions. 



1. The head, which bears the organs of sensation, the antenna, 



eyes, and motith ; 



2. The thorax, which bears the organs of locomotion, the winffs 



and leys ; and 



3. The abdomen, containing the vital organs of respiration and 



digestion, and the organs of generation. 

 In the beetles, the position and shape of the eyes, the position, 

 structure, and number of joints of the antennae, the structure 

 of the mouth with its mandibles, maxilloe, and palpi, the structure 



