Introduction 9 



As in Lameere's system the highest rank is assigned to Lamellicornia ; 

 principally, it seems to me, on account of the high degree of concentra- 

 tion of the ganglia of the nervous system. I cannot share this view for 

 reasons that will be given later, but it may be here stated that Dr. Gahan 

 in a cautious way commends the Ganglbauer system and ends his masterly 

 review in the "Entomologist" thus: "I think that his classification may 

 well stand for the present as the one best devised to express our knowl- 

 edge of the phylogeny of the Coleoptera." 



Ganglbauer's system is also substantially approved by Anton Hand- 

 lirsch,^ ) who in 1430 pages and 70 plates reviews the accumulated 

 knowledge of fossil insects and deduces from the study thereof, and 

 the study of various systems of classifications of living insects, a phylo- 

 genetic classification of the latter. For the purpose of this paper, pp. 

 1271-1280 and "stammbaum" VII, in which the families of Coleoptera 

 are treated, are of the greatest interest, and as the results I have reached 

 do not entirely agi-ee with those therein set forth, it seems proper to 

 preface an account of them by pointing out that Handlirsch admits 

 that he is not a coleopterist (p. 1276) and that his reference to verbal 

 communications from Ganglbauer, both authors being attached to the 

 Hof-Museum in Vienna, may indicate that to some extent the one was 

 influenced by the other. 



Handlirsch considers the Coleoptera as being derived from Proto- 

 blattoidea previous to Triassic times, rejecting the alleged Coleopterous 

 fossils of earlier epochs as being very doubtfully beetles at all; dining 

 the Triassic epoch he conceives that from an extinct protocoleopterous 

 fauna two suborders arose, viz.: Protoadephaga and Protopolyphaga. 

 Triassic fossil remains consist of elytra only, which cannot with cer- 

 tainty be ascribed to any existing famiUes. During the succeeding 

 Liassic epoch the Protoadephaga began to divide into the Adephagous 

 families as now known; the more numerous fossil remains (pi. XLI), 

 showing sometimes head and thorax as well as elytra, permit of the 

 family being recognized by general appearance, though legs, antennae 

 and other appendages are missing. Dm-ing the Lias also the Pro- 

 topolyphaga began to divide into something approaching then' present 

 divisions; among the Lias fossils resemblances to our present Elateridse 

 are not uncommon, the pecuUar prosternal process being plainly seen 

 in some; while the blattoid form of thorax found in other fossils is very 

 suggestive of Malacodermata like our Lampyrida?. But Handlirsch 

 expressly disputes the reference of Trias or Lias fossils to existing fami- 



' Die Fossilen Insekten und die Phylogenie der Rezenten Formen, Leipzig, 1906-190S. 



