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i 



NORTH AMERICAN OOI.KOI'TRRA. 



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ReviNioii of the €IJ€UJIDAI': of America Kortli of Mexico. 



Hv Tiios. L. Casev, Liout. (.f Knjf'rs., ([. S. A. 



iNTRonncTORY Note. 



Tlio I'ollowinjjj revision has owuiiicd all tho tiino which I njukl curi- 

 veiiiently spare f'roiu uiy professional duties tor the past four inoiiths, and 

 has involved more labor than \ anticipate d. My design was u, lmvc de- 

 scriptions and H<.'ures, — drawn as carefully as )Missil)le from the insects 

 themselves. — of every species known to our fauna, not oidy in order to 

 facilitate the identification of cabinet specimens, but to sliow as plainly as 

 possible the wonderful and very varied structures to be met with in this 

 •rroup of fienera. I trust that my objects have been accomplished with 

 at leasi partial success. 



The descriptions of nenera have for the irreater part been drawn from 

 Lacordaire's (rcnera des Coleopt^res, with such additions and adaptations 

 a.s were found necessary for our species. The jreneral scope of the family 

 is that triven in the classification of the Col. of N. A. by Drs. ficOonte 

 and Horn. Tiie synonymy of Iltini/iip/iis has been drawn from Dr. 

 Horn's paper on that subject. The position of the genus X<irf/irrii(s at 

 the head of the Cucujinae was first proposed by Mr. Crotch in some 

 unpublished manuscript notes; the same distinguislied entomologist also 

 recommends the fusion of SifroiiKs and Xmixiftins. but I think uiuieces- 

 sarily. 



I have to give my most sincere thanks to Drs. Le(\)nte and Horn, as 

 well as to Mr. E. A. Schwarz for the utdimited use of their cabinets and 

 libraries. 



As is well known it has long been a disputed (piestion whether the Sil- 

 vaninae pn^perly form a part of the Cucujidae or Cryptophagidae, but as 

 the group possesses characttirs common to both and, as it were, forms a 

 connecting link between them, it is a matter of very little importance to 

 which family we attach it. The differential characters, however, do not 

 appear to me to be sufficiently important to warrant us in considering 

 them a distinct family. 



As at present organized, therefore, we have the following general 

 characters : 



(IS) 



