280 NATURAL ARRANGEMENT OF 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 Curculmiidce, that it is almost inconceivable how a 

 quadruped and an insect can be such prototype^ of each 

 other. The Pachydermata, or the elephant, the rhino- 

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

 drupeds, as the bulky Prionidce are of the Capricorn 

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

 rambycid(8 and of the Solipedes, — the tarsi of one cor- 

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

 remarkable; while the LepturidcF, 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 BostrichidcB 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 Uttle singular ; but such is undoubtedly the fact, for 

 there are few other beetles possessing an 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 gnup, while they become perfectly 

 apparent when sought for in another. 



