COLEOPTEROUS FAMILY PAUSSIDUE. 5 
to Dr. Burmeister to be of greater importance than I felt and still 
feel disposed to accord to it, since in a very philosophical memoir 
published by him in Guérin’s Magasin de Zoologie, 1841, he has 
endeavoured to prove that the Pausside are nearly related to 
the Carabide, and especially to the Ozeenz, considering them as 
a group annectent to the Carabide, in the same manner as the 
Gyrinidz are attached to the Dyticidee. 
My observations on the grounds on which Dr. Burmeister has 
deduced this relationship will be given in treating on the genera 
Paussus and Platyrhopalus, an examination of which led Dr. 
Burmeister to adopt these views. 
The following 1s a synoptical table of the genera belonging to the 
family :— 
Antenne quasi 10-articulate : : : : - Ll. Cerapterus, Swep. 
Autenne quasi 6-articulate 
Prothorax truncato-cordatus . a ‘ - . 2. Ceratoderus, Wrstw. 
Prothorax transversus angulis anticis rotundatis ; 
posticis valde emarginatis , . 5 . . 3, Lebioderus, Wrstw. 
Prothorax angulis anticis valde productis : . 4. Pentaplatarthrus, Westw. 
Antenne quasi bi-articulate. 
Caput in prothoracem immersum: ocellis 2. - 5. Hylotorus, Daum. 
Caput in prothoracem haud immersum, collo distincto, 
ocellis nullis. 
Palpi labiales articulis equalibus 5 . . 6. Platyrhopalus, Westw. 
Palpi labiales articulo ultimo elongato —. . 7%. Paussus, Linn. 
The various relations existing amongst the species of these 
different genera, do not appear to me to allow of their arrangement 
either in a linear or circular series in our present limited knowledge 
of the family. Mr. MacLeay, adopting a series of relations pointed 
out by me in the Linnean Transactions, proposed to arrange them 
i a circle by commencing with the Paussi, thence passing to 
Platyrhopalus, P. Mellii leading to Cerapterus latipes, Cerapterus 
MacLeaii to Pentaplatarthrus, by which last he returns to the 
Paussi with a bipartite prothorax. Considering the discovery of a 
circular arrangement of the species of a group to be the essential 
proof of its being natural, it follows that all other genera which 
appear to belong to the family must be rejected, “ since, if inserted 
in the above circular series, they appear to interrupt it.” I con- 
sider it however unquestionable that Ceratoderus, Lebioderus, and 
Hylotorus, are as truly Paussidcous as Cerapterus or Pentaplatar- 
thrus, and to be groups as high in the importance of their charac- 
ters as either of those genera which Mr. MacLeay himself admits. 
I shall accordingly describe the genera in the order given in the 
above table, without wishing it to be considered as their natural 
