MK. F. P. PASCOE ON THE CTIRCTTLIONIDiE. 435 



associatiou. Beyond all doubt there has been one type* of form 

 amongst these thousands of species, and in all directions has this 

 type diverged until we have a network of affinities, which in many 

 cases can scarcely be distinguished from analogies. Under these 

 circumstances it will be easily understood that a great difference 

 of opinion is often found to exist as to the true place iu the 

 family. I ask attention to this point, because in the literature of 

 the group there will be found statements that the relationship of 

 this or that genua has been completely misunderstood, iiot only 

 because analogy may be mistaken for affinity, but also because a 

 greater value has been attached to certain characters by some 

 authors than has been done by others. 



I have followed the arrangement of Prof. Lacordaire in his 

 great work on the genera of the Coleoptera (vols. vi. and vii.), 

 only (1) I have not adopted his '■ growpes^ to which, as the learned 

 author admits, he is sometimes unable to assign precise limits, 

 and (2) I have, as heretofore, ventured to name his * tribus ' 

 subfamilies, which, as it appears to me, is more consonant to the 

 ordinary meaning of the words than it would be to make the 

 tribe subordinate to the family. The total number of the sub- 

 families is eighty-two, and these, taking M. Lacordaire's arrange- 

 ment as the basis, are here divided into seven categories, which I 

 have tabulated below. It must be understood that there are 

 many exceptions to the characters given, but these are unavoidable 

 in a natural classification. 



* Dr. Leconte (Silliman's Journ. xliv. 1867, p. 42) considers that the Ehyn- 

 chophora, to which the Curculionidtc belong, represent a special, but inferior 

 type " which naust be isolated from all other types of Coleoptera, possessing a 

 systematic value equal to all the others combined." The inferiority of this type, 

 lie says, is manifested not only in the larval condition, but also "by the combi- 

 nation in the imago of characters belonging to a perfectly developed organisjn 

 with others pertaining to an inferior grade in the scale of Coleoptera," that " de- 

 gradational characters " are absent, and that other characters " representing low 

 grades in their respective series do not appear in the Ehynchophora, such as 

 vegetative growth of the organs of sense, indicated by pectinate or flabellate 

 antennas, or excessive length of palpi." An instance of pectinate antennae will, 

 however, be found in Ctenaphides, a genus described further on ; and if no case 

 can be cited of excessive length of palpi, at least there is one genus {Mecomastyx) 

 in wliicli the antcnnnj assuming the " vegetative growth " are four times the whole 

 length of the body, and this proportion is not exceeded by any Longicorn. Dr. 

 Leconte might also have cited the confusion or soldering together of parts of the 

 mouth, the commencement of an approach to the suctorial type, and a manifest 

 departure from the organization of the rest of the Coleoptera. 



