COLEOPTERA. 



333 



clearness and distinctness with which the conckisions contained therein 

 are stated. This notice is not intended as a translation, and space will 

 not permit of our going into the reasons for the conclusions reached, 

 and the many alterations from the existing order Avhich one finds. We 

 can only recommend coleopterists to study them for themselves, but to 

 give a few extracts is necessary. M. Lameere suggests that the 

 ancestor of Coleoptera should have had the following characters : 



I. — (1) Complete metamorphoses. (2) Four malpighian tubes. (3) 

 The niouthparts adapted for biting. (4) A large and free prothorax. 

 (5) All the tarsi five-jointed. (6) A pad between the tarsal claws. (7) 

 Three ocelli. (8) Eight visible segments to the ventral surface of the 

 abdomen. (9) All the coxte conical and projecting. (10) The antennas 

 with eleven similar joints. 



II. — This ancestor was a Neuropteron of the Planipennes group ; 

 it should have lived under bark, or bored into trunks, and with 

 such habits the usefulness of the transformation of the upper wings 

 into elytra is evident. He then proceeds to divide the Coleoptera into 

 three suborders, to which he gives the names, Cantharidiformes, 

 Staphyliniformes, and Carabiformes, which are separated by the 

 neuration of the wings. These again are subdivided, as is shown in 

 the table appended, facts and arguments being presented in the notes 

 to support their position. We have not here whole groups of families 

 which have no connection whatever with each other, bundled together 

 under such names as " Polymorpha," &c., as has occurred in a recent 

 scheme of classification. 



One point, hoAvever, will no doubt meet with considerable opposi- 

 tion, and that is the PuUcidae being placed in the Staphyliniformia, 

 from the general source of which M. Lameere considers that they are 

 derived. In the Ann. de la Sue. Entom. de Belyique, tome xliii., 

 1899, he remarks: — "As for the fleas, regarded nearly unanimously 

 as Diptera, I have no doubt they are Coleoptera of the group Staphy- 

 linoides sensu Ganglbauer. Heymons has demonstrated definitely 

 that they are not Diptera .... but in proving that the unpaired 

 appendage of the mouth is only the labrum, he has removed the last 

 barrier which hinders their being considered beetles ; they have, in fact, 

 eleven-jointed and not three-jointed antennae, contrary to all the 

 descriptions, and this character leaves no doubt as to their parentage." 



M. Lameere gives at the end of his paper a table of his scheme of 

 classification which we here reproduce : — 



COLEOPTEEA, 



Staphyliniformia. 



Silphidae. 



Histeridae. 



Staphylinidae. 



Pselaphidae. 



Platypsyllidae. 



Pulicidae, 



I Silphiinae. 

 Clambinae. 

 Sphaeriinae. 



IHydroseaphinae. 

 Scaphidiinae. 

 Corylophinae. 

 Trichopteryginae. 

 Scydmaeninae. 



Caeabifokmia. 



Rhysodidae. 



Carabidae. 



Paussidae. 



Dytiscidae. 

 Gyrinidae. 



/Omophroninae. 

 j Haliplinae. 



Amphizoinae. 



Hygrobiinae. 



Hydroporinae. 

 VDytiscinae. 





Canthaeidifoemia. 



Lymexylidae. 



Teredilia. 



