12 Introduction 



Tenebrionidae in the form of the genitaUa, but all the other families 

 heretofore called Heteromera more nearly resemble Cucujidae in the 

 form of genitalia than Tenebrionidse. They suggest the arrangement 

 of the Coleoptera in eight series, thus: 



Byrbhoidea — most of Leconte's Serricornia. 



Cababoidea — Adephaga. 



CucuJOiDEA — all not included elsewhere. 



Staphtl'linoidea — Staphyliniformia. 



Malacodermoidea — Malacoderraata. 



Tenebrionoidea — Cistelidae, Lagriidae, and TenebrionidEe. 



Scarabaeoidea — Lamellicornia. 



Phytophagoidea — Phytophaga and Rhynchophora combined. 



but they give no definitions other than those drawn from the genitalia 

 and admit that their work is unfinished and subject to revision, espe- 

 cially as to division of the series Cucujoidea. It is noteworthy that 

 they found two types of genitalia in the family Colydudae, and that the 

 more primitive of the conditions of the coleopterous genital tube, so 

 far as existing forms are concerned, occurred in the Byrrhoidea, contra- 

 dicting to this extent the phylogeny presented above. 



I have been greatly impressed by the results of this work by Sharp 

 and Muii' and regret that it has not yet been completed. Its recog- 

 nition of Caraboidea, Staphylinoidea, Malacodermoidea, Tenebrionoidea, 

 Scarabaeoidea and Phytophagoidea, as six great series, each having 

 characters in common, while each at the same time shows a definite 

 different direction in which modification has progressed, seems to be 

 final corroboration of results obtained by previous authors from studies 

 of adult and larval characters. Its severance of Tenebrionoidea from 

 the heterogeneous assemblage heretofore called Heteromera is the step 

 needed to correct the old error inherited from Latreille. While I have 

 been so far unable to correlate their series Byrrhoidea and Cucujoidea 

 with any series based on external characters, I feel that these divisions 

 of theirs may nevertheless be indications in the right direction, but 

 obscured at present by the fact, recognized by Shaip and Muir also, 

 that a number of series are possibly combined in these two groups. 



Another worker with genitalia is Verhoeff ^ who studied also the 

 number of abdominal segments, but in both subjects for a few families 

 only. The accuracy of his observations and the value of his deduc- 



' Vergleichende Untersuchungen tlber die Abdominal segmente und die copulations organe 

 der mannlichen Coleoptera (D. E. Z. 1893, pp. 113-170); and weiblichen Coleoptera (D. E. Z. 1S93, 

 pp. 209-260). 



