COLEOPTERA. 3 



I shall therefore first treat upon that order which has chiefly engaged 

 the attention of the scientific world, or 



Order I. COLEOPTERA. 



Distinguished by having usually two membranaceous virings * longitudinally and 

 transversely folded, and covered by two horny or coriaceous elytra, or wing- 

 cases, united generally with a straight suture. Metamorphoses incomplete. 



This order is usually subdivided into groups agreeably to the 

 number of joints of which the tarsi are composed, as pentamera, or 

 five-jointed, &c. : but as the numerous anomalies presented by this 

 method — which was proposed by Geoifroy — materially disturb the 

 succession of natural affinities, I shall not adopt it ; and, with 

 reference to the more philosophical views of Mr. Mac Leay, of 

 arranging insects in accordance with their metamorphoses, I can- 

 not venture, as he proposes, to employ his terms of chilopodomorpha, 

 &c. as primary divisions, from the ignorance we labour under with 

 respect to the larvse of several of the groups. I shall therefore con- 

 sider these and the tarsal characters as subsidiary, and proceed with 

 the descriptions of the various groups as they are apparently con- 

 nected with each other by affinity and habits, commencing with 

 those beetles whose oral organization appears to be the most per- 

 fect, or 



Section I. A defhag a, Clairville. 



Palpi sex : — with six palpi ; one pair attached to the mandibles ; two to the 

 maxillae : the superior portion of the maaillw scaly, the internal side ciliated, 

 its apex armed with an articulated, or simple clawf : mcntum large, horny, 

 nearly semicircular, deeply notched, and frequently armed with a tooth in 

 the middle of the superior margin. 



The larvae of this section, as far as ascertained, are in general long, 

 semicylindric, and subpyramidal ; with the head very large, and 

 armed with extremely strong falciform jaws : the terminal (or in the 

 Cicindelida, and some of the Scaritida ? the eighth) joint of the body 

 is furnished with two appendages, and the three primary joints with 

 six scaly legs : from their form being analogous to that of the Chi- 

 lopoda, or Scolopendrce of Linne, Mr. Mac Leay terms these larrcs 



* Many genera among the Carabidw, CurcuUohidcc, Cantharidcc, <S;c. have no 

 wings :— some, as Cychrus, Blaps, Lipariis, Sec. have the elytra soldered to- 

 gether .-—other exceptions to the characters of the order likewise occur. 



t Or, as Mr. Mac Leay analytically expresses it, tlie ?uax'illcc furnished in- 

 ternally with a lobe, and externally with a biarticulate palpiform process. 



