COLEOPTERA: CHARACTERS. 337 



though existent, are soldered together without any wings 

 being concealed by them, as in many of the Carabidee, 

 Blapsida, and other terrestrial darkling beetles, which have 

 no use for wings. There are, in like manner, to be found 

 exceptions to the transverse folding of the wings, in the 

 Buprestidce, and some of the longicorn beetles; whilst in 

 Meloe one elytron partly laps over the other, and in Sitaris, 

 Ripiphorus, &c., the suture is not straight, the elytra not 

 shutting together, and in Atractocerus, Molorchus, &c., 

 the wings are not covered by the wing covers, from the re- 

 duced size of the latter. Still there are sufficiently strong 

 indications of direct affinity between all these insects, and 

 others belonging strictly to the order; so that it is impossible 

 not to perceive that they equally belong to it, although they 

 form exceptions to one out of several of its leading cha- 

 racters. 



Scarcely any branch of natural history has been so much 

 investigated as this order of insects : indeed, many students, 

 as well as amateurs, have exclusively devoted themselves to 

 this group. The amazing variety of form ; the richness or 

 agreeable disposition in their colours ; the great number of 

 modifications which their external organization presents to 

 our view, and which consequently afford so many additional 

 aids towards their classification ; the circumstance that these 

 animals generally surpass in size the remainder of the class 

 to which they belong; and the ease with which they are pre- 

 served, owing to the greater consistence of the outer cover- 

 ing, all tend to render the Coleoptera interesting to the 

 student ; but to these circumstances may be added the vast 

 extent, as regards the number of species contained in the 

 order. It would, indeed, be difficult correctly to judge of 

 the number of these insects distributed over the surface of 

 the globe, each arrival from foreign climes bringing hosts of 

 novelties to our cabinets ; and not only is it from the little 



