classification of the Adephaga. 71 



enormous mass of Carahidce (including the Pseudo- 

 morphidce), except those groups that have been placed in 

 one or other of the preceding sections. 



Herr Kolbe supplements this formal sketch with some 

 remarks on the various sections and some of the sub- 

 families ; some of his hints and suggestions will be found 

 useful, but others are of a speculative rather than 

 a practical character, and a future systematist who 

 should pay much attention to these would be perhaps 

 only confused. 



To criticise at length this very original memoir would 

 occupy me too long ; it undoubtedly contains many 

 suggestive comparisons, and indicates a considerable 

 knowledge and much power of generalisation. But it is, 

 as a natural system, completely erroneous, the author's 

 hypothetical starting-point having caused him to attach 

 undue importance to certain characters and to neglect 

 others. Hence it is that he has reduced the Cicindelidce 

 to a mere subsection of his Mesodcphaga, and has made 

 a statement so illogical as that on p. 275, where he says 

 that the peculiar insertion of the antennae in the Cicin- 

 delidce is merely a result of the enormous development of 

 the mandibles ; a conclusion which is contradicted by 

 the fact that in the Scaritidce, where the mandibular 

 development is even greater than in the Cicindelidce, the 

 antennal insertion does not even approximate to that of 

 the Cicindelidce, but is more different therefrom than in 

 the Carahidce, with smaller mandibles ; and by the fact 

 that in Trichognathus and Loricera, where the antenn-al 

 insertion approximates to that of the Cicindelidce, the 

 mandibles are unusually small. 



Although we cannot look on Herr Kolbe' s effort at a 

 natural classification as successful, we nevertheless thank 

 him for it ; it is in fact very important that classification 

 should be treated from various points of view, and every 

 character receive its due share of attention, and thus 

 any one who ventures far from the beaten track should 

 be encouraged, for he is siu'e to bring to light something 

 useful. 



