214 MR. A. MURRAY'S MONOGRAPH OF THE FAMILY OF NITIDULARLE. 
Linnæus among the Silphide. Fabricius threw them, and a number of other species 
which are now to be sought in distant parts of our systematic arrangements, into one 
genus under the name of Nitidula (a diminutive of nitidus)—an appellation not very 
appropriate considering the obscure colouring and sordid appearance of many of the 
species, but which has been retained, notwithstanding an early attempt of Laicharting 
(Verz. Tyrol. Ins., Zür. 1781), in which he was followed by Schénherr, to get it changed 
(to Ostoma). ! 
Latreille, Herbst, Kugellan, Leach, Stephens, Shuckard, Laporte, Fischer, Perty, &c. 
from time to time broke up the genus, or added new genera to the family, as fresh 
materials were discovered. To them we owe the genera Caferetes, Herbst (Cercus, 
Latreille) ; Brachypterus, Kugellan ; Carpophilus, Leach and Stephens; Cil/eus, Laporte ; 
Psilotus, Fischer; Pria, Stephens (Cormyphora, Laporte) ; Meligethes, Stephens ; Lasio- 
dactylus, Perty; Strongylus, Herbst; Cychramus, Kugellan; and Oryptarcha, Shuckard. 
But it was not until the year 1843 that it underwent a special examination. In that 
year Erichson published, in Germa:'s * Zeitschrift für die Entomologie, a monograph of 
the family, which has been ever since and still remains the standard work on the subject; 
and perhaps no better proof of its excellence and ability could be given than the fact 
that during the lapse of nearly twenty years, most fertile in the progress of entomology, 
which have passed since that publication, no subsequent author has found, nor do I now 
in my turn (with the added experience of all that time) find, anything to alter in the 
general principles of his classification. The main divisions which he has laid down seem 
the best which can be adopted, and I have little more to do than to fortify them by 
additional characters, correct their boundaries where imperfect information had led 
Erichson into error, and add to the species contained in them the new discoveries which 
have accumulated since the publication of his work, and establish new genera for the 
new forms for which a place cannot be found in the old. 
The new “coupes” which Erichson made in his monograph were the following 
genera :— Mystrops, Colastus, Brachypeplus, Conotelus, Ecnom«eus, Epurea, Perilopa, 
Soronia, Prometopia, Platychora, Axyra, Ischena, Ipidia, Amphotis, Lobiopa, Omosita, 
Phenolia, Stelidota, Thalycra, Athina, Hebascus, Gaulodes, Lordites, Pocadius, Cam- 
ptodes, Cyllodes, Amphicrossus, Pallodes,-Oxycnemus, and Triacanus. 
The year after (1844), in the fifth volume of Germar's * Zeitschrift, he gave an appendix 
to his previous paper, which is chiefly occupied with the characters of the genera of the 
Trogositide, which he regarded as a portion of the family of Nitidularie. I look upon 
them as a distinct family, and do not include them in this monograph. He there added 
also the genus Cybocephalus to the Nitidularie—a step from which I dissent for reasons 
to be presently given. 
In 1844 and 1845 Sturm, adopting Erichson’s classification, and adapting it to his 
* Deutschlands Fauna,’ published a sort of monograph of the family as found in Germany, 
chiefly valuable for the excellent coloured figures given of the different species. No 
new divisions or genera are there proposed, although one or two new species, chiefly of 
Meligethes, are described. : 
In 1848 the volume of Erichson's ‘Insekten Deutschlands’ (usually known as the 
