2'21' MODERN CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. 



The larvae are, for the most part, elongate, and furnished with strong 

 jaws and six thoracic legs, in which state, as well as when arrived at 

 perfection, they are eminently vegetable feeders ; a i'ew, however, prey 

 upon other insects, both in the larva and j^erfect states. 



In the ' Genera Crusfaceonan,' &c. Latreille divided his great group 

 of Saprophagous Coleoptera into eighteen families, including the 

 Sternoxi, Malacodermi, Clerii, Ptiniores, and Palpatores ; but in his 

 Families Naturelles he united the four latter families into a section 

 termed Malacodermi, adding a third, Xylotrogi. In the second 

 edition of the Regne Animal, more recently he has endeavoured to 

 effect a natural transition between the Sternoxi and Malacodermi, 

 by proposing another intermediate section for the reception of 

 Rhipicera, &c., and by removing the Cebrionidas from amongst the 

 Malacodermi to the Sternoxi, as a distinct division, connecting the 

 Sternoxi with Rhipicera, &c. ; the genus Dascillus (Atopa) at the 

 end of the latter leading to Scyrtes (Elodes), at the head of the 

 Malacodermi. Although, however, Rhipicera and Cebrio evidently 

 form portions of the passage between the Sternoxi and Malacodermi, 

 they appear to agree rather with the general characters of the latter. 

 It is true, indeed, that in the firm consistence of the body, which was 

 Latreille's chief reason for removing them from the latter subsection, 

 they agreed rather with the former ; yet many other Malacodermi 

 have the body quite as firm as it is in these genera. In like manner, 

 the Cebrionidffi possess so ^ew of the characters of the Sternoxi, 

 whilst they so closely agree with Rhipicera, that I prefer leaving 

 them in the same family. 



Uniting also the Xylotrogi with the Malacodermi, as subsequently 

 noticed, the Serricornes will form two divisions, to which it will be 

 more correct, as well as convenient, by way of comparison to give the 

 names of, 1. Macrosterni (in lieu of Sternoxi), having the pro- 

 sternum large, produced into a point ; and 2. Aprosterni (in lieu of 

 Malacodermi), with the prosternum simple. 



The first of these divisions Macrosterni * (Sternoxi Latreille), 

 comprises the Linnaean genera Buprestis and Elater, in which the body 



« BiBLioGR. IIefer. to THE Machosterni (Stehnoxi Latr .). 

 Latreille. Mem. in Annales Soc. Ent. de France, 1834. 

 Say, in Annals of Lyceum, Nat. Hist, of New York, vol. i. 18L'4. 



