Order COLEOPTERA. 



Suborder POLYP HAG A. 

 Superfamily LONGICORNIA. 



Family CERAMBYCID^. 



Head obliquely inclined in front, sometimes subvertical, but 

 with the genal edge always oblique or vertical, formed into 

 a more or less distinct and often projecting angle behind 

 the base of the mandible; clypeo-frontal sutures generally 

 distinct, the clypeus as a rule relatively large. Last joint of 

 palpi not pointed at the end. Front tibiae not grooved under- 

 neath, the middle tibiae, except in Disteniinw, never notched 

 nor grooved on the outer margin. Tarsal claws always simple ; 

 in the great majority of forms, widely divergent or divaricate. 



This family, although comprising fewer specific forms than the 

 Lamiidce, is less homogeneous in character and probably contains 

 as great a number of different genera. It appears to be on the 

 whole the less specialised of the two, including as it does a much 

 larger proportion of forms which have retained what may be 

 regarded as primitive characters. But as these characters appear, 

 some in one genus or group, some in another and never all together, 

 the problem of determining the phylogenetic relationship of the 

 various groups is one of the greatest difficulty, and the classification 

 of the family remains for the present to a great extent artificial. 

 The minor groups in which Lacordaire arranged the genera appear 

 to me to be, with few exceptions, natural ones ; and in dealing 

 with the larger subfamilies I have, with certain modifications, 

 adopted them here, but have not adhered to his sequence in the 

 arrangement of the groups. The family, so far as it is represented 

 in the present fauna, I have divided into four subfamilies, three 

 of which correspond to the three main groups into which Gangl- 

 bauer has divided the European Cerambydnce; the fourth subfamily 

 is equivalent to Lacordaire's group Disteniides with the addition of 

 two genera which he had placed elsewhere. The division is based 

 to some extent on larval characters, which however are not given 

 in the following synopsis. 



VOL. i. n 



