278 NATURAL ARRANGEMENT OF INSECTS. 



rienced studenthas, no doubt, often captured them. Their 

 light and elegant shape, cursorial feet, and small head, 

 offer a contrast to the Cerambycidce. With regard to the 

 fourth type, we have already expressed our doubts, chiefly 

 arising from a deficiency of analysis. We were long 

 disposed to think that this part of the series was naturally 

 occupied by such genera as Sagra and Crioceris, parti- 

 cularly as Latreille places them immediately in conjunc- 

 tion withLeptura, a station, after all, they may possibly 

 hold ; but their still closer affinity, as we conceive, to 

 the Chrysomelidfe, prevents us from following such high 

 authority. Satisfied, for reasons that will presently ap- 

 pear, that the Curculionidce were the most aberrant 

 family of tjie Capricornes, our next object was to find 

 what group was most likely to connect these, in some 

 degree, with the Lepturidce, by means of Attelabus, which 

 Latreille very judiciously arranges close to the Curculio- 

 nida>. On these grounds have we formed the conjecture 

 that most of the Bostrichi intervene between these two 

 families more particularly as we do not think they form 

 a part either of the LucanidcB or the Prionida. By this 

 means, also, the evident affinity between Bostrichus and 

 Clerus may be preserved, if we consider the latter as 

 leading to the Coccinellidce and ChrysomelidcB, the former 

 of which they resemble by the carnivorous habits of their 

 larvae, All this, however, as we stated before, must be 

 considered a mere matter of opinion, until the groups to 

 which these several insects are in any way related are 

 thoroughly analysed. 



(250.) We may now turn to the analogies resulting 

 from the above arrangement of the whole tribe ; and as 

 the most difficult of these will regard the CurculionidcZ) 

 we shall commence by the following comparison. 



