166 ' THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



original type seems to me to be also open to question ; for I do 

 not regard the wing-venation of the Cupedidae as the original 

 type, though doubtless nearer to it than is any other, yet met 

 with in the Coleoptera. It appears to want one longitudinal 

 vein that is frequently to be seen in the cubito-anal system of 

 the Malacoderms and Elateridse, and while this may not be 

 evident from the figures given by Ganglbauer, I suspect the 

 reason is that he has not quite correctly homologized the veins. 

 The vein A^ of his Cantharoidean type corresponds, I think, with 

 the Cu2 and not with the Aj of his Cupedid wing. Compared 

 as a whole, the cubito-anal system in the Cupedidfe resembles 

 more the same system in the more primitive Polyphaga than it 

 does that of the Adephaga ; and the modification undergone by 

 the Cantharoidean tyjDe seems to be limited to the loss of a few 

 transverse veins, including one of the two between the media and 

 its branch Mj, the partial atrophy of M^, and a change from a 

 straight to a curved form in the vein left to connect it with the 

 media. Such a change would be no greater than that which 

 can, I think, be traced in the transverse veins between A^ 

 and Cu2, in passing from the straight form they show in the 

 Malacoderms to the more or less strongly curved form, enclosing 

 an elliptical cell, which may be seen in some of the slightly 

 higher groups. 



It was never, in my opinion, justifiable to place the Cupe- 

 didae in the Adephaga solely on the ground of their wing- venation. 

 Kolbe, to whom we owe the discovery of the interesting wing- 

 venation of this family, was the first to do so ; but he has since, 

 on other grounds, withdrawn them, and now places the Cupedidae 

 in the Polyphaga. Here, again, I think he is wrong ; for, as I 

 have recently pointed out,* the Cupedidfe possess, in common 

 with most of the Adephaga, another character, which seems to 

 be very distinctive of that group — namely, the presence of a 

 distinct suture on each side of the prothorax, between the notum 

 and the pleurae. This character is to be found in all families of 

 the Adephaga, including the Ehysodidae and Paussidae, although 

 it shows in the latter a tendency to disappear in the more 

 modified forms. It is said to occur also in some genera of 

 Polyphaga ; but I have, so far, been unable to find anything in 

 the nature of a true suture in any of those genera. Something 

 of the kind may occasionally be seen, as, for example, in the 

 Pythid genus Cry modes, but in these cases it is evidently only 

 an impressed line of a secondary character. 



A knowledge of the life-history of the Cupedidae, which is at 

 present wanting, would greatly contribute towards a more settled 

 conclusion in regard to the systematic position of the family. 

 From what little is known of the habits of these beetles, Lameere 



* Ann. Mag. N. H. (8) v. p. 57 (1910). 



