2-i INTRODUCTION. 



Family SCARAB^ID^. 



Subfamily CETONIINiE. 



These are among the most familiar of beetles in the warmer 

 regions of the earth, being typically diurnal, brightly coloured and 

 of moderately large size. Some of the most brilliant and striking 

 of all animal forms are found in the Subfamily and, as the species 

 are often very abundant and make little or no attempt at con- 

 cealment, they attract more attention than most other insects, both 

 in the liviiig state and in collections. They may perhaps be 

 regarded as a group of comparatively late evolution and still en- 

 joying the maximum of vigour and prosperity. In consequence 

 they form a very homogeneous assemblage without considerable 

 gaps and without any important structural variation. As a result, 

 classification is very ditficult, the component sections merging 

 almost imperceptibly into one another. An effect of the attrac- 

 tiveness of the group is that it has received a special amount 

 of attention from a very large number of sj'^stematists of every 

 kind, but, although the literature relating to it is exceptionally 

 large, it has received very little serious scientific study. Of the 

 metamorphoses and habits of the species we know lamentably little, 

 and for any comprehensive classification it is necessary to go back 

 to a period ^hen the number of known forms had reached only a 

 fraction of its present size. The Monograph of the group by 

 Grory and Percheron published in 1833, although illustrated with 

 copious coloured figures, is a most unsatisfactory work which 

 probably introduced more confusion than it cleared up. The 

 admirable volume devoted to the subject by Burmeister (Hand- 

 buch der Entomologie, vol. iii, 1842) is unfortunately without 

 illustrations, and a further misfortune for the Indian fauna was 

 occasioned by the practically simultaneous publication with it 

 of Westwood's work on " The Goliat hideous Cetouiida? of Asia" 

 (Arcana Entomologica, vol. i.) and of Blanchard's " List of 

 Cetoniidse" in the Paris Museum. In these works different 

 names were in various cases given independently to the same 

 form. Thus "Westwood's genus Heterorrhina is Burmeister's 

 Coryphocera and Ileterorrh'ma dives of Westwood was actually 

 described by Burmeister from the same miique specimen as 

 Alystroceros dlardi. In such cases I have allowed the priority to 

 Westwood, whose work was published in two parts, the second 

 appearing on the 1st September 1842, while Burmeister's Preface 

 being dated September 1842, may safely be assumed to have been 

 unpublished on the first of that month. 



The number of Cetoniin,^ now recorded for the whole world is 

 about 2500, and of these nearly 2o0 are here enumerated as 

 Indian. 



