164* 



ON SYSTEMATIC ZOOLOGY. 



ciples of the learned Swede have relaxed, in this in- 

 stance, from their accustomed dread of innovation,, by 

 making several genera not to be found in the works of 

 their master. 



(21?.) Looking to this list, we perceive that the sys- 

 tem is not only more natural than any which preceded 

 it, but that nearly all the great families made by more 

 recent entomologists are named and characterised under 

 the denomination of genera. The combination of these 

 groups, however, in many instances are obviously intended 

 to be artificial : this is most conspicuous in the order 

 Coleoptera, where our illustrious author truly judged., 

 that as the differences in the antennae furnished one of 

 the most obvious distinctions among insects, so a classi- 

 fication founded chiefly upon those organs among beetles 

 would offer the greatest facilities to the ready deter- 

 mination of the genera. In judging, therefore, of the 

 entomological system before us, we should bear this in 

 mind, since it cannot for a moment be supposed that 

 such a writer as Linnaeus, if he had not this object in 

 view, would have placed Buprestis after Cicindela, or 

 Necy delis after Carabus ; still less that he could have 

 fancied any natural affinity between Silpha and Cocci- 

 nella, or Elater and Cicindela. The Coleoptera, in 

 fact, is nearly the only order where he found it necessary 

 to group his genera into purely artificial sections, in order 

 that they might more easily be determined. In his 

 other orders these subdivisions were not necessary, and 

 we accordingly find the genera following each other in 

 a much more natural series,* On this point Mr. Kirby 

 has justly observed, that, in general, Linnaeus had such 

 a tact for discovering natural groups, that in him it 

 seems almost to have been intuitive.t 



(218.) The VEBMES constitute the last class of the 

 Systema Naturce, under which are comprehended all 

 animals whose bodies are not furnished with limbs. As 

 it is curious to perceive how Linnaeus contrived to bring 



* Except in Hemiptera. f Int. to Ent. vol. iv. p. 440. 



