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IV. On the classification of the Adephaga, or carnivorous 

 series of Coleoptera. By D. Sharp. 



[Read February 1st, 1882.] 



It is now more than twenty years since Leconte, writing 

 on the classification of the CarabidcE (Class, Col. N. 

 Amer., p. 5), said : — " Numerous efforts have been made 

 to indicate a rational distribution of the genera, and the 

 attempts commenced by Latreille and Bonelli, and 

 successively improved by the suggestions of Dejean, 

 Erichson, Schiodte, Lacordaire, and myself, have finally, 

 in the expert hands of Schaum, assumed a form in which 

 probably permanent results have been attained." 



The learned and energetic American expert had him- 

 self contributed greatly — probably as much or more than 

 any other of the talented entomologists he mentions — 

 to the rational system of classification he describes, and 

 had no doubt done so at the expense of great labour and 

 time, and it was but natural that he should speak with 

 confidence of results so legitimately obtained ; but the 

 lapse of time has not altogether justified his expression 

 of reliance as to the permanency of the results then 

 reached. 



Duval, Chaudoir, C. J. Thomson, and other naturalists 

 have worked since Leconte at the classification of these 

 insects, and each has contributed more or less to know- 

 ledge, and has thus induced change. The genera of a 

 large number of groups have been entirely remodelled 

 by Chaudoir, whose recent decease has deprived us of 

 one of the most indefatigable and useful of entomolo- 

 gists; while of the larger groups it may be truly said 

 that at present but little accord exists as to their limits 

 and arrangement, except in the case of certain compara- 

 tively small and isolated groups. And in point of fact 

 we have learned that the natural classification of insects 

 is a prodigiously complex and difficult affair ; and at the 

 same time the introduction of the theory of evolution 

 has added much to the importance of the subject, and 

 has helped to make it appear worthy of renewed efforts, 



TRANS. ENT. SOC. 1882. — PART I. (APRIL.) 



