CLASSIFICATION, NOMENCLATURE, ETC. 



By W. W. Fowler. 



As it would cause much confusion if the classification adopted in 

 the Supplement were different from that adopted in the preceding 

 volumes, I have, with one or two minor exceptions, followed the same 

 lines in the former as in the latter. 



Since 1890, however, our views on the classification of the Coleoptera 

 have been mvxch modified, and it has become obvious that the old 

 sj'^stems require a considerable amount of alteration, and, in many 

 points, are very unsatisfactory and incorrect ; the Carabida?, for instance, 

 or rather the Adephaga, instead of being highest in the scale of develop- 

 ment, are, through their campodeif orm \arvse and structural peculiarities, 

 believed now to be among the lowest and most archaic ; it appears 

 more probable, perhaps, that the lowest forms should be looked for 

 among the Malacodermata, but, at all events, they are probably to be 

 found in one or other of these groups. The Rhynchophoiu again are by 

 no means the lowest in the scale, and by some authors are assigned a 

 high position ; they appear to be parallel with the Phyto2)haga but 

 are more highly specialised than that group. 



The Lamellicornia seem to stand by themselves at the head of 

 the order as a separate series or sub-order, and they must come 

 either at the beginning or the end, according as we work upwards or 

 downwards. 



The chief classifications at present before us are those of Sharp, 

 Ganglbauer, Lameere, and Kolbe, and all these require careful study in 

 conjunction with the older systems. The two first are the simplest. 

 Sharp (Cambridge Natural History, vol. vi. p. 190) considers that the 

 Coleoptera should be divided into three series: (1) Lamellicornia, 

 (2) Adephaga, (3) Polymorpha (including all the other families). 

 Ganglbauer divides the whole into Adephaga and Polyphaga, the latter 

 being equivalent to Sharp's Polymorpha, with the addition of the 

 Lamellicornia ; the Polymorpha he divides into six " Familienreihen " : 

 (1) Staphylinoidea (including in our fauna Staphylinidfe, Pselaphida?, 

 Scydmsenidje, SilphidiB, Clambidse, Leptinidae, Corylophidse, Sphseriidae, 

 Trichopterygidse, Scaphidiidje, Histeridse). (2) Diversicornia. (3) Hete- 

 romera. (4) Phytophaga. (5) Rhynchophora. (6) Lamellicornia. The 

 Staphylinoidea are a homogeneous group, but the Diversicornia form a 



