304 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



species of Dascillidae. Their structure in the Buprestidse is 

 somewhat remarkable, and constitutes what might almost be 

 regarded as a distinct type. Each testis, as described by L6on 

 Dufour in the genus Corcehus, consists of five very long, slender, 

 tubular capsules, which, arising from the dilated end of the 

 vas deferens, are intricately coiled up together in a mass, from 

 which their ends emerge, terminating each in a slight oval 

 swelling. In another Buprestid {Anthaxia manca), investigated 

 by Laboulbene, there are six spermatic capsules, which are 

 swollen and somewhat fusiform at the base where they join the 

 efferent duct, and then taper out into long fine tubes, which are 

 coiled together and run into one another, their ends not being 

 free as in the preceding case. It would be interesting to find out 

 not only how far this type of structure occurs in the Buprestidte, 

 but whether it is to be met with also in any other family. The 

 only other beetles I know of in which the structure is at all 

 similar are the Cleridfe. 



In another respect also the Buprestidae call for some remark 

 and further inquiry. The Malpighian vessels, which in most 

 other families, and even in whole groups, are tolerably constant 

 in number, either four or six, are in this family not at all con- 

 stant, but appear to be nearly as often the one number as the 

 other. Out of seven species, investigated by Dufour and La- 

 boulbene, four were found to have six Malpighian tubes and 

 the remaining three only four. In the larvfe he dissected, 

 Dufour found six of these vessels, and not knowing at the time 

 that any Buprestid imago had six, he was led to infer that the 

 larvae of Buprestidae had six and the beetles only four Malpighian 

 tubes.* This would be a surprising fact, if true. But the infer- 

 ence was wrong, and the probability is, as Laboulbene said, 

 that larva and beetle have, in the case of each species, the same 

 number of vessels. 



From these different facts I have mentioned concerning the 

 Buprestidae, it is evident that there is much still to be done 

 before we can finally decide what place that family should take 

 in the ranks of the Coleoptera. 



Having but a very limited knowledge of some of the families 

 included in the Dascilloidea of Kolbe, I can hardly venture to 

 go further in the way of criticism than to point out that there 

 is some room for a difference of opinion in regard to the compo- 

 sition and validity of the group. This is evident from La- 

 meere's treatment of the same series of families. He has 

 placed some of them with the Elateroids and Buprestidae in his 

 group Sternoxia. For the Psephenidae, Dryopidae, and Hel- 

 midae he makes a separate group — the Macrodactylia. And he 



* Hence, probably, an error, which appears on p. 355 of Packard's ' Text- 

 book of Entomology.' 



