INTRODUCTION. 



FAMILY SCARABCEIDJE. 



Subfamily RUTELIN^E. 



THE name EUTELID^E was first used by Macleay in 1819 (' Horae 

 Entomologicae ') for the characteristic American genera (Rutela, 

 Pelidnota, etc.) of the group as now understood, but Macleay did 

 not recognize as closely related to these the Oriental forms here 

 dealt with, which he considered as belonging to the MELOLONTHIDJS. 

 The first recognition of the actual limits and components of the 

 group is to be found in Bunneister's ' Handbuch der Entomologie,' 

 vol. iv, pt. 1 (1844). In this work, the most important treatise 

 of which the Lamellicoru beetles have ever been the subject, this 

 great entomologist elaborated a complete classification of the group, 

 under the name of Phyllophaga metallica, which is in all essentials 

 the classification in use at the present time. Lacordaire, in 

 vol. iii of his ' Genera des Coleopteres,' made a few minor im- 

 provements and in particular introduced a more convenient 

 nomenclature, and the system of classification as then formulated 

 has not since been superseded or modified in any important 

 respect. In recent years Dr. Ohaus has published a revision of 

 the ADOEBTIJTI and of various other subdivisions of the RUTELIN^B, 

 in which the number of known species has been largely increased, 

 but his attention has been devoted less to the Oriental members 

 than to those of certain other regions. The writer of the present 

 volume has published, in the ' Annals and Magazine of Natural 

 History,' various short papers designed to bring up to date the 

 enumeration of the species known from Ceylon, Burma, and other 

 parts of the Indian Empire. 



The RuTELiNjE form a branch of the huge Family SCABABJGID.&, 

 not separated by any profound difference either in structure or 

 habits from the DYNASTIN^; on the one hand and from the MELO- 

 LONTHIN.E on the other. With the DYNASTIN^; in particular there 

 is the closest relationship, certain genera standing practically on 

 the border-line. The most important features for the separation 

 of KTTTELiNjj; from DYNASTIN^ are the mobile and unsy in metrical 

 claws, the larger one of which upon some (but rarely all) of 

 the legs is usually cleft at the tip, and the well-developed and 

 externally-visible labrum. In the DYNASTIN^ the claws are 



B 



