COLEOPTEEA. 



CLAVICORNIA (s-ontlnued). 



This division of the Coleoptera, as has been already ohserved (vol. i. 

 p. 217), must be regarded as more or less artificial, and as adopted for 

 the sake of convenience, rather than as being scientifically accurate, and 

 perhaps it must be admitted that the more the various forms are studied, 

 the more obvious does it become that the division is a very loose one, 

 and that certain of its members present such close affinities to other 

 families that they can hardly be separated from them ; in fact, it seems 

 more than probable that the term Clavicornia, as applied to a group, will, 

 sooner or later, be abandoned altogether ; as, however, it has already 

 been adopted in this work, it seems the best course still to retain it ; the 

 group Clavicornia is therefore regarded as containing the Hydrophilidre 

 (vol. i. pp. 217-261), the Staphylinidte (vol. ii.), and the whole of the 

 various families contained in the present volume ; the Staphylinidae 

 have been, for convenience' sake, placed in a separate volume, but, as a 

 matter of fact, their proper position appears to be between the Pselaphida3 

 {EiiplecUis) on the one hand, and the Trichopterygidse {Ptinella) on the 

 other ; in one sense, therefore, the present volume commencing with the 

 Leptinidse and Silphidse, ought rather to be regarded as the second and 

 not the third volume, the order of the families being Hydrophilidse, 

 Leptinidse, SilphidiE, Scydmcenidse, Pselaphidse, Staphylinidse, Trichop- 

 terygidae, &c. 



As regards the arrangement of the Clavicorn series I have followed 

 almost entirely that of the catalogue published by the Kev. A. ]\Iatthe\vs 

 and myself in 1883 ; Mr Matthews has studied the anatomy of the 

 group almost more than any other Coleopterist, and his arrangement will, 

 in most points, be found to be correct and logical ; at the same time it 

 must be borne in mind that it is perfectly impossiljle to construct any 

 linear arrangement or tabulated synoiDsis of the families ; their affinities 

 are so intermingled and so closely inoscuLite one with another, that all 

 attempts to do this have proved utterly unsatisfactory, and, for all prac- 

 tical purposes, worse than useless. I have therefore merely given below 

 the chief characters of each family, being convinced that to draw up a 

 practically useful dichotomous table of the families is an impossibility, 

 I am largely indebted to the work on the Classification of the Coleoptera 

 of North America, by Dr. Lcconte and Dr, Horn, for many of tlia 



VOL. III. B 



