Introduction 13 



tions have been strongly attacked in Germany by Julius Weise ' and 

 Otto Schwarz,- and have received scant attention elsewhere. In 

 this connection the excellent di'awing of the extruded genitaUa of Brachya- 

 cantha by Grossbeck ' should not be overlooked. The most striking 

 feature of Verhoeff's contribution seems to me his recognition of the 

 isolated position occupied by the Coccinellidae, for which he made a 

 sub-order Eleutheresiphona, based upon the genitalia, larval char- 

 acters and life history. The subordinal rank of the family is not con- 

 ceded by any other author, as far as I know, but its separation as a 

 series from the other clavicorns, may be the outcome. 



Pierce ^ has revived the separation of the family Stylopidae as 

 an order, Strepsiptera, and has recently repeated the arguments in 

 favor of this course.^ This is questionable, as they seem to lead quite 

 readily from a series composed of Mordellidse, Rhipiphoridse and Meloi- 

 dse, and connected, judging from larval characters, through the Mordel- 

 lidae with Lymexylidse. That they should have become highly specialized 

 would naturally follow from their parasitic habits. 



A similar separation was proposed for the parasitic Platypsyllidae 

 by Westwood, who called them Acreioptera, but has long since been 

 discarded. 



LARVAL CHARACTERS 



There has been much written about the larvse of Coleoptera, especi- 

 ally by the Danish and French authors, but there is no complete classi- 

 fication based on lar\'al characters. The larA'iE of the primitive families 

 are either campodeafonn, with elongate bodies, long legs, and anal cerci, 

 or blattoid, broader in outline, with expanded sides. In the Adephaga, 

 the legs terminate usually in two claws and according to som? authors, 

 are composed of one more joint than in Polyphaga, but there are excep- 

 tions to the dual claw, and further studies of Adephagous larvae may 

 show other exceptions. In some primitive Pol^TJhaga the larvse are 

 also campodeaform, but with only one claw. In Staphyliniformia, the 

 blattoid form often occiu's and it is also seen in Psephenus; it becomes 

 therefore difficult to say which is the more prunitive of the two forms 



■ D. E. Z. 1894, pp. 155-157 also, D. E. Z. 1894, pp. 177-188; 1895, pp. 6.5-78. 

 = D. E. Z. 1894, pp. 153-155; 1895, pp. 27-36. 

 ^BuU. .4m. Mus. Nat. Hist. XXX, 1911, p. 284. 



* A monographic revision of Strepsiptera (Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus. No. 66, 1909, pp. 1-232.) 

 ^ The comparative morphology of the order Strepsiptera (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. LTV, 1918, 

 pp. 391-501.) 



