280 NATURAL ARRANGEMENT OP INSECTS. 



(251.) We may here intimate to such of our readers as 

 are unacquainted with the animals composing the Eden- 

 tata, that the long-snouted ant-eaters and the armadillos 

 are here designated ; and so perfectly do the first of these 

 represent, in their long snout, the attenuated rostrum of 

 the CurculionidcBy that it is almost inconceivable how a 

 quadruped and an insect can be such prototypes of each 

 other. The Pachyd&rmata, or the elephant, the rhino- 

 ceros,, &c., are as truly the giants of the ungulated qua- 

 drupeds^ as the bulky Prionldce are of the Capricorn 

 tribe. The inferior developement of the foot in the Ce- 

 rambycidte and of the Solipedes, the tarsi of one cor- 

 responding to the hoof of the other, is not a little 

 remarkable; while the Lepturidce, with their long and 

 slender legs and their agile movements, find their ap- 

 propriate representatives in the graceful antelopes. The 

 uncertainty that hangs over the Bostrichidce prevents us 

 from offering any conjectures on their analogy to the 

 Anoplotheres ; and this latter group, also, from being 

 chiefly known by its fossil remains, contains but very 

 few types. Upon the whole, however, this is not a 

 matter of much consequence, seeing that the analogies 

 of the other four groups are as perfect as the great 

 distance between the groups themselves, in point of af- 

 finity, will admit. Our main object, in fact, was to 

 draw the reader's attention to the analogy of the snout 

 beetles and the ant-eaters; in doing which, the other 

 resemblances, which previously we had never thought 

 about, came suddenly to light while drawing up the 

 table. That the analogies of the Curculionidce should be 

 more apparent among quadrupeds and birds, than among 

 annulose animals, or even insects of the same order, is 

 not a little singular ; but such is undoubtedly the fact, for 

 there are few other beetles possessingan elongated rostrum. 

 This is additional proof that analogies can never be fully 

 traced or even understood without a general knowledge 

 of all the classes of animals, and that they may be altoge- 

 ther obscure in one group, while they become perfectly 

 apparent when sought for in another. 



