viii CLASSIFICATION, NOMENCLATURE, ETC. 



very heterogeneous and unwieldy complex, as they contain several of 

 our Clavicorn families, together with the Serricornia and Malacodermata, 

 Ganglbauer appears, however, to have somewhat modified his views 

 with regard to the Clavicorn series (compare his article in the Miin- 

 chener Koleopt. Zeitschrift, i. 316, 1903, with his introduction to Die 

 Kjifer von Mitteleuropa, vol. iv. p. 1, 1904). 



Much valuable work has been done by Kolbe with regard to 

 classification : his most recent articles (Zeitsch. fur Wissenschaftliche 

 Insektenbiologie, iv. 1908) are the best on the subject that he has 

 written ; in many cases his ideas, although apparently revolutionary, 

 may have, in the end, to be adopted. 



Lameere's " Notes pour la Classification des Coleopt^res " are well 

 worthy of attention (Ann. Soc. Ent. Belg. 1900 and 1903).* He makes 

 a few serious mistakes (e.g. he places the Brenthidse under the Clavicorns 

 and considers the Pulicida? (Fleas) to be coleopterous f), but his work 

 on the phylogeny of the order is, for the most part, very good, although 

 in many points open to criticism. 



In considering the general classification of the Coleoptera, it must 

 be remembered that several chai-acters that have ordinarily been 

 largely or entirely neglected are now taken into serious account. 

 More attention is being paid, as it should be, to the larvse and life 

 history, and also to the venation of the wings ; the latter is in many 

 cases very valuable, especially in the Adephaga and Staphylinoidea ; in 

 the other groups it often breaks down ; we may, however, say roughly 

 that we have three well marked systems of venation : (1) the Ade- 

 phagid, (2) the Staphylinoid, and (3) the Cantharid (or Telephorid). 

 The first of these is chiefly characterised by the presence of one or two 

 transverse veins joining the two median veins, or by two transverse 

 veins situated nearer to the base and joining the upper median or an 

 irregular branch of the lower radial vein to the lower median, thus 

 forming a definite oblong, called the areola ohlonga, which is very 

 characteristic of the majority of the Adephaga, although it is not found 

 in Cicindela or Rhysodes ; in the second group there are no transverse 

 veins and the whole system of the venation is much simpler ; in the 

 third, the chief characteristic is the loop formed at a greater or less 

 distance from the apex by the coalescence of the two median veins, one 

 only (it is usually hard to say which) being continued from the centre 

 of the loop to the margin of the wing ; this loop is subject to much 

 modification, and is in some families or groups only partially indicated 

 or quite absent, and therefore the veins in the third division in many 

 cases tend to revert to the Staphylinoid type ; this detracts much from 

 the general utility of the wing venation as a character for classification, 

 but it is nevertheless very useful when taken in conjunction with other 

 characters. 



* A remvid of this paper by Mr. Donisthorpe will be found in the " Ento- 

 mologist's Record " for I'M), ]). :?32. 



t 1 believe that he has since abandoned this idea. 



