972 Mr. J. O. Westwood on the 
marginal cells, but when it is known that the character of the 
species is as distinctly impressed, not only on the precise number 
but absolutely on the precise points of insertion of these veins as 
it is on the highest points of its economy or outward structure, 
we equally at once arrive at the same conclusion that a knowledge 
of this character, artificial as it may be, is from the mere sim- 
plicity of its employment, a character as valuable as though it 
were derived from its most important organs. There is, in fact, 
so singular an uniformity maintained in these comparatively unim- 
portant characters, that the examination of them becomes as strong 
an evidence of the marvellous power of the Creator as the most 
elaborately constructed portion of their frames ; in fact, we oftener 
find deviations from the typical structure of higher parts than from 
these trivial ones. ‘To find a Carabus with only four joints in its 
tarsus would in fact be as great an anomaly and a much greater 
rarity than to find one with monstrously furcate antenne. It is 
on these grounds that the employment of these comparatively 
trivial characters is justifiable and indeed absolutely necessary, 
and it is especially on this account that the employment of the 
characters to be derived from the veining of the wings in Hyme- 
noptera, Diptera, Lepidoptera, §c., has been so much and so long 
insisted upon. 
These remarks have been suggested by a recent examination of 
an extensive group of beetles with the view of determining their 
species. To do this effectually it was requisite to examine the 
whole group with much attention so as to determine the relative 
value of the various sectional characters which the different species 
exhibited, or, in other words, to learn whether by grouping the 
species from the possession or want of certain structural pecu- 
liarities we should not run the risk of separating more widely 
apart than was evidently warranted by nature, species which pos- 
sessed an evident affinity between themselves resulting from their 
possessing other characters in common. 
The group in question was the genus Lucanus, possessing nearly 
150 species in the whole; and from an examination of at least 120 
species I was led to the conclusion that the number of small spines 
upon the outer edge of the middle and posterior tibiz constituted 
the most available artificial character for grouping those species 
together which evidently possessed the greatest natural relation- 
ship with each other. ‘The employment of this character had been 
partially adopted by the Rev. F. W. Hope, in his isolated descrip- 
tions of some of the species, published in the Linnzan Transac- 
tions and elsewhere, but it had not hitherto been applied to the 
