()'2 Mr. J). Shiiri) on the 



it. IxMii!^ cK^ar that our systoniK of classilication will 

 iiltiniMti'ly ho appi^Mlcd to as ono of tho modes of testing 

 ilie () I'riori |)rol)al)ility of orj^anii' (Solution. Hence it 

 is no matter for surjirise tliat the suhjeet is still of 

 interest, and that it has recently received a fresh 

 consideration from Dr. George Horn, who has already 

 proveil himself a worthy assistant of Leconte and his 

 l>rt>diH*i^ssors. In the Transactions of the American 

 l'julc)mok>gical Society for July 1S81, }^r. Horn has 

 given ns a i)ai>er i>xtending to one hundred pages, illus- 

 trated hy eight usi>ful ])lates, wherein he has proposed a 

 system of forty-eight tribes for the Carahidcc, and has 

 prt^fiU'ed his paper with a jiroposal for a modified arrange- 

 ment of the carnivorous families of Coleoptera. Tliis 

 hitter (piestion is of course a still larger and more 

 dilVu'ult i>ne than that of the arrangement of the mem- 

 bers of the (\trtibi(la'', and 1 should not feel justified in 

 expressing my opinion on it, except that I have recently 

 ret^uired to devote some attention to the subject in con- 

 nectiini with my work on the Pjitiacidie — one of the 

 carnivorous families — now in course of publication by 

 the Hoyal Publin Society. 



in his treatment of the Cdnibiihc Dr. Horn has made 

 a decided improvement by adopting three subfamilies, 

 viz.. CiirdbiniC, Ifdrpalinte, and Pst'itdoniorphintc, instead 

 of two, viz., C(irabi)i(€ and n(irpalin(e, as has been here- 

 tofore done. These subfamilies are limited primarily by 

 the structure of the middle coxal cavities, a character 

 that is found by experience to be of primary importance 

 in the carnivorous series, and is indeed of very great 

 importance and assistance throughout the whole order of 

 beetles. About a year and a half ago I published a 

 preliminary notice on the classilication of the Dutiifcidic 

 (Comptes-rendusSoc. Knt. Belg., xxiii. p. cli). and pointed 

 out that one of the two series of this family differed 

 from the other series, and. so far as was then kiKn\Ti, 

 from all C(irabid(C and other Coleoptera, by the fact that 

 tlie metathoracie episternum, as well as three other 

 pieces of the sternum, entered into the composition of 

 the articular cavities of the middle legs. Dr. Horn has 

 now made the interesting discovery that in a single 

 genus (^f the C<v\dndu' a similar structure prevails : that 

 genns is MonnolijiW Now Mormoli/ce has been known 

 for a number of years as one of the wonders of the 

 insect world, and so extraordimu'v is it in appearance, 



