Mr. C. J. Gahan— Notes on Clerida*. 57 



Lacordaire's whole " groupe " Phyllobsenides, for example, 

 and other genera to which I shall have to direct attention 

 are in this case. 



With regard to the second of Lacordaire's distinctions 

 between the Clerinse and the Corynetinse, this, more 

 accurately stated, should be, that in the Clerinse there is no 

 lateral margin or carina on the prothorax, whereas in the 

 Corynetinse the prothorax almost invariably has either a 

 lateral margin or carina, or at least shows some traces of it. 

 In no Clerida3, and in no other beetles of the suborder 

 Polyphaga with some few doubtful exceptions, have I ever 

 seen any traces of the primitive sutures that separate the 

 pronotum from the pleurae of the prothorax. The presence 

 of such sutures seems to be confined to the Adephaga, and 

 constitutes, in my opinion, one of the most distinctive 

 characters of that suborder ; and here I may state that since 

 I find these sutures present and very well marked in Omma 

 and Tetraphalerus , two genera of Cupedidse, I consider that 

 much- debated family to be rightly placed in the suborder 

 Adephaga. 



Coleopterologists, myself included, very often in their 

 descriptive writings refer to the lateral margin of the pro- 

 thorax, when present, as marking the boundary line between 

 the pronotum and the pleurae. But there is no real justi- 

 fication for this practice. The lateral margin may, and in 

 many cases probably does, coincide with the primitive 

 dividing-line ; but in the Polyphaga there is no means of 

 telling, since the sutures have in nearly every case dis- 

 appeared. If, however, we turn to the Adephaga, we find 

 there that the sutures are generally placed at some distance 

 below the lateral edge, and that the pronotum itself forms 

 no inconsiderable part of the flanks of the prothorax, that 

 part to which Leconte and Horn have given the name of 

 epipleura. In the Cupedidse the relative proportions of the 

 pleurae and the epipleura vary a good deal. The pleurae in 

 the two genera mentioned above are wide and form a good 

 part of the sides of the prothorax, but in the genus Capes 

 itself they seem to be restricted to very narrow limits. 



This leads to a question which has a direct bearing upon 

 the classification of the Cleridse. Is the presence or not of 

 a lateral margin on the prothorax a matter of primary 

 importance ? 



In some recently published systems of the classification of 

 the Coleoptera, I find the Cleridae of Lacordaire no longer 

 maintained, but split up into two distinct families, the 

 Cleridae and the Corynetida?. Since no details as to the 



