282 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
been clearly perceived, the attempts to define these important 
forms have failed in a greater or less degree, on account of 
the want of proper subordination in the characters made use 
of: all of them natural, all of them important, though in a 
less degree than supposed by the expounder of each 
particular system. 
To supplement the memoirs above referred to, there came, 
in more recent times, the beginning of a systematic study of 
our species of Curculionidae, by Dr. George H. Horn, a 
careful and conscientious study of the Calandride: and 
Cossonidz, and of some Mecorhynch genera of the United 
States.* In the introductory remarks he observes :—“ One 
character is mentioned in the following pages that appears to 
have escaped notice. In most, if not all, of the -genera of 
Mecorhynques, the males have eight, and the females seven 
dorsal abdominal segments. The Calandrides and Cosso- 
nides appear not to possess this character, as also all the 
Brachyrhynques which I have had time to examine.” 
The value of this original observation of Dr. Horn is very 
great, but the limitation which he has placed upon it, though 
correct as regards the Calandride and Cossonide types, is 
erroneous as regards the Brachyrhyncs, which have the 
abdominal sexual characters precisely as in the genera in 
which he first observed them. So, too, have the Brenthide, 
and all the anomalous sub-families of Curculionide in the 
Jekelian system. It appears, therefore, that this peculiarity 
of structure is of much more importance than was supposed 
by Dr. Horn, and, that it must im reality be the defining 
character for the division of the Rhynchophora into primary 
series, of more than family value. I therefore prepared a 
series of dissections of each of the well-recognized Rhyncho- 
phorous types within my reach, and have come to the 
conclusion that they may be arranged in three sets, each of 
which has a corresponding value to the individual series of 
normal Coleoptera (e.g. Adephaga, Clavicornia, Lamelli- 
cornia, &c.); and upon subordinate characters (some of 
which have been already employed in the classifications 
above mentioned, though in an empirical manner) into 
families, as follows. 
* “Contributions to a Knowledge of the Curculionide of the United 
States.” (Proc. Am. Philosophical Soe, 1873, 407.) 
