in the Tetramerotis and Trimer ous Coleoptera. 73 



even when we consider it in no other light than as aftbrdino- 

 means of description. As a medium for expressing natural affi- 

 nities, it had already been sufficient!}' characterized by the 

 learned entomologist who has been the principal source of its 

 celebrity, when he said, " Articidorum tarsorum progressio nu- 

 merica decrescens in methodo naturali non adinittenda." This as- 

 sertion I have repeatedly proved to be true, notwithstanding 

 its having been tacitly retracted by M. Latreille, when he 

 brought forward this system in the Règne Animal distribué 

 après son Organization. To overturn, therefore, this arrangement 

 of Coleoptera altogether, and to demonstrate that it does not 

 even possess the merit of being an accurate artificial one, it only 

 remained to show that this numerical progression of tarsal joints 

 does not really exist in nature, and that we have been hitherto 

 giving those very groups of Coleoptera, which perhaps are most 

 familiar to our eyes, names that in point of fact are quite 

 erroneous. 



VOL. XV. L III. No- 



