358 MODERN CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. 



the presence of great, quantities of such insects. In India but very 

 few gigantic species of Longicornes are to be found. 



Tiiis subsection is very intimately allied on the one hand to the 

 Chrysomelidae, by means of the genera Leptura, Donacia, and 

 Crioceris ; but the oj)posite transition from the Longicornes to the 

 Rliyncophora requires many yet unknown links. 



The genus Parandra* has, indeed, been employed to establish a 

 passage between Prionus and Cucujus; but it appears to form a much 

 more evident step between the Prionidfeand Lucanidtc ; a relationship 

 which I have discussed at some length in the 18th and 19th numbers 

 of the Zoological Journal, and 26th number of the Magazine of 

 Natural History. 



In the Linnsean system, these insects formed the three genera, 

 Cerambyx, Leptura, and Necydalis. Geoffroy, Fabricius, and other 

 naturalists, endeavoured to render these groups more natural, by the 

 transposition of various species, or by the establishment of other 

 generic groups, amongst which may be particularly mentioned Pa- 

 randra Lair., Spondylis t Fahr.^ Prionus Geoff'r., Lamia Fabr., and 

 Saperda Fabr. The immense number of species discovered since the 

 days of Linnaeus, have rendered the investigation and classification of 

 these insects very difficult. The labours of Messrs. Saint Fargeau 

 and Serville, in the Encyclopcdie Mi'thodique, and more especially the 

 revision of the subsection by the last-named author in the Annales de 

 la Societe Entomologique de France, have contributed greatly to an 

 advantageous classification of these insects. It is evident that there 

 are several principal types, to which the whole of the species may be 

 referred ; and hence the families PRiONiDiE, Cerambycid^, and 

 Lepturid.^ have been proposed. Latreille has, indeed, in the second 

 edition of the Rlgne Animal, proposed only two primary divisions, 

 characterised by the structure of the eyes ; the first, with emarginate 

 eyes, being divided into three groups, Prionii, Cerambycini (including 

 Cerambyx, Clytus, Necydalis, &c.), and Lamiariae (including Lamia 



* The type of this long-established genus is the Attelabus glaber De Geo; iv. 

 t. xix. f. 14., of wliich Mr. Kirby, in his observations on the affinities of these in- 

 sects, speaks as an overlooked insect, and which he proposes to name generally 

 Gnathophorus. {Faun. Bor. Amer. p. 166.) 



+ Mr. Kirby considers that the genus Spondylis, though placed by Latreille 

 amongst the Prionida-, seems to furnish a link connecting the P]at}'soma with 

 another family of Capricorns, the Lavniadans, and particularly with L. vermicularis 

 Donov. 



