276 NATURAL ARRANGEMEXT OK INSECTS. 



hooked, the legs cursorial, and the first joint of the tarsi 

 long ; the thorax is always narrower than the body, 

 and is generally either spined or wrinkled : the perfect 

 insect is floral; that is, feeds upon living vegetables and 

 flowers. — Of tlie extent of the 4th family we feel very 

 uncertain ; but we are disposed to consider the major 

 part of the Xylophagi of Latreille as forming a part, at 

 least, of the group, regarding Bostrichus, or Tomicus, 

 as the type of a family of lignivorous insects to which 

 Clerus is unquestionably related either by affinity or 

 analogy. — The oth and last family is the Curculio- 

 nidiT, or snout beetles, connected to the former by means 

 of Bruchus ar.d the Anthrihides, through Hylurgus, &c. 

 Nearly the whole are distinguished by the prolongation 

 of their snout, which forms a rostrum, at the extremity 

 of which is a very minute mouth. The antennae, which 

 in the first three families is usually as long as the 

 body, and generally much longer, is here comparatively 

 short, and is almost always bent into an angle in the 

 middle, as if broken. 



(248.) The above arrangement of the primary divi- 

 sions is founded partly upon synthesis, and partly from 

 analysis. The situation of the Prionidee cannot be 

 questioned ; because, being united in the most intimate 

 manner to the Lucanidce, it necessarily follows they 

 must be placed in that part of their own circle which 

 brings them into immediate contact with their proto- 

 types among the Lamellicornes. The difficulty respect- 

 ing these insects does not lie in their station, but in 

 ascertaining what other lignivcrous genera are naturally 

 associated with them. It is quite clear that the old genus 

 PHonus contains merely the typical examples ; so that 

 we have no scruple in placing Latreille's Platysoma (in- 

 cluding Cucujus), and perhaps most of his Trogosita, 

 excepting Trogosita itself, as aberrant forms : but how 

 many others, among the host of small or minute ligni- 

 vorous genera (now broken up and elevated to the rank of 

 small genera), are naturally associated with them, it is. 



