EEV. T. A. MAKSHALIi — COBYNODINOEUM EECENSIO. 29 



United States, Eumalpus auratus of Fabricius. It is singular 

 that no species of the group has hitherto occurred in South 

 America, where the luxuriance of vegetable growth is so favourable 

 to the peculiar habits of the Phytophaga. Eumolpus, properly so 

 called, appears in those regions as the analogue of Chrysochus and 

 Corynodes. 



Although it is easy to collect the scattered statistics of natural 

 history, and to note the prevalence of certain forms of animal life 

 in particular regions, we cannot but feel humiliated at the reflec- 

 tion how feeble is the grasp of our faculties, and how imperfect 

 the inductions we can draw from the facts observed. Of the real 

 laws which govern the dispersion of different creatures upon the 

 face of the globe, and of the reasons (for there must be reasons) 

 which have suggested the infinite variation of their organs, we are, 

 and must probably for ever remain, in complete ignorance. We 

 are forced, in order to satisfy our conceptions of the fitness of 

 things, to the assumption that the bewildering maze of phenomena 

 which we see is the result of the mere luxuriance of Power, and is 

 infinitely varied only because the Power which creates is infinite. 



We now proceed to deal with the first section of the subfamily 

 before us, regretting that the materials at hand, although con- 

 siderable, must inevitably fall short of representing every variety 

 of form. The following is an attempt to draw up a synopsis of 

 genera, in which the chief difiiculty has been to obtain characters 

 of sufficient prominence, in a family of acknowledged difficulty 

 from the great similarity of their organs. 



Tabula Genervm Synojptica. 

 Fam. EUMOLPID^. 

 Subfam. Cortnodiita. 

 Antennae extrorsum plus minus incrassatse s. dilatatse, corpora 

 breviores : thorax cylindricus lateribus marginatus, verticem 

 supra occultans, plerumque post oculos utrinque sinuatus : 

 corpus oblongum, convexum ; pedes robusti, tibiis canalicu- 

 latis, extus apice angulatim productis ; unguiculis bifidis s. 

 appendiculatis. 



t Antennae distincte clavatse ; clavse articulis, numero 5-7, com- 

 presso-dilatatis. 

 * Articulo ultimo apice late ob- 



tuso, rotundato Coetnodes, Hope. 



** Artie, ultimo apice acuminate . AcROTHiiiriUM. 



