90 



CORYLOPHID.E. 



sparingly, in Teneriffe. But the Messrs. Crotch, during their la 

 Canarian researches, found it in profusion, by sifting rubbish and 

 dead leaves^ both in Teneriffe and Gomera. In the former island, 

 they obtained their specimens chiefly at Ycod el Alto and in the lofty 

 Final above it. 



Fam. 12. CORYLOPHID^]. 



After re-examining the structural minutice of this family, with 

 reference to the difficult question of its affinities, I have come to the 

 conclusion that it is more natural to keep it in the neighbourhood of 

 the Anisotomidce and Trichopterygidce than to force it into juxta- 

 position with the groups which follow upon CoccineUa and Rlrizobius 

 to which, as it now appears to me, its resemblance is perhaps more 

 fanciful than real. Not to enter into the secondary features of the 

 diminutive insects which compose it (such, for example, as their 

 tctramerous simple feet, and the tendency which they possess to have 

 their antennal joints reduced in number), I believe there is one point 

 which binds them so closely to the Anisotomidce that it might well 

 nigh render superfluous the consideration of every other namely, 

 the more or less diminished size, which obtains in most of the genera, 

 of the second joint of their elongated club*. The importance of this 

 little character, which may be regarded as diagnostic of the various 

 forms which arrange themselves around Anisotoma, and which I am 

 not aware is indicative of any other Coleopterous family whatsoever, 

 need scarcely be insisted upon ; for it can hardly fail to be acknow- 

 ledged. And when, therefore, we find other peculiarities likewise 

 which either tend to or do not militate against the same conclusions, I 

 think we may accept the place here assigned to the Corylophidce as at 

 all events more in harmony with the several details of its structure 

 than any that could be obtained by granting it a doubtful admission 

 into the Pseudotrimera. 



With the exception of Moronillus which (if its antennae be really 

 11 -articulate, so as to separate it from my previously published Glee- 

 osoma) I consider to be still unenunciated, seeing that Duval com- 

 piled his diagnosis of it from two totally different insects it is worthy 

 of remark that our Atlantic Catalogue contains exponents of all the 

 genera which, so far as I am aware, have hitherto been characterized 



* Sacium and Arthrolips are the only forms in which this peculiarity of the 

 antennal club is not indicated ; and in some other respects also they are perhaps 

 less typical of the Corylophidce than the remaining groups which have hitherto 

 been characterized. 



