Anatomy of the Male Genital Tube iii Coleoptera. G17 



may, from our point of view, be more correctly placed in 

 Trogositidae. Thymalus and Lejperina depart from the 

 more typical Trogositidae by the lateral lobes being 

 veatrally brought together (completely conjoined in 

 Thymalus, incompletely in Leperina). This point is of 

 importance, because on account of it we have associated 

 with the Cucujoidea certain families that have been 

 usually associated in Heteromera. The tubular sheath 

 formed by the tegmen in Trogositidae, is found in Cleridae, 

 Byturidae, and in a somewhat different form in Cyatho- 

 ceridae, and we have therefore placed the families in 

 question in the Cucujid-Trogositid complex. 



The curious genus Diagrypnodes of Cucujidae will 

 have to be separated from the family ; it approaches 

 Pythidae. On the other hand no surprise will be felt at 

 the association of Pythidae and Aegialitidae (which are 

 pretty certainly but one family) with Cucujidae, when it 

 is recollected that the Cucujidae include Heteromerous 

 forms, and that certain genera, e.g. Rhinomalus and 

 Hemipephcs, have for long been sources of perplexity, as 

 to the distinctions between "Heteromera" and Cucujidae. 

 Anthicus, Heteroceridae, Othniidae and Lathridms have 

 but little specialisation of the sac ; none of them show 

 any special approximation to Cucujidae, but they appear 

 to be less ill-placed in Cucujoidea than elsewhere. Lathri- 

 dms is usually placed in one family with Corticaria, but 

 the two have but little connection, and Corticaria will 

 perhaps find a better position near Cryptophagidae, though 

 it appears to be very aberrant. 



We have no hesitation in placing Coccinellidae in this 

 complex, although Verhoeff (in Arch. Naturges, 61, 1, 

 1895) has separated Coccinellidae as the equivalent of all 

 other Coleoptera by the nature of the male structures, 

 they possessing, according to his perception, within the 

 " penis " (= our median lobe) a structure he calls the 

 siphon. We do not take the same view of the structures 

 as Verhoeff does. According to our view the siphon is 

 the median lobe (penis of Verhoeff) and the part that 

 hoods it (and that Verhoeff calls penis) is an unusual fold 

 which is certainly a part of the tegmen, though we do not 

 feel called on to decide as to its exact nature without a 

 knowledge of the ontogeny. If this view of the structures 

 be correct, Verhoeff's two divisions of Coleoptera, viz. 

 Siphonophora (= Coccinellidae) and Asiphona ( = all other 



