with Descriptions of New Species. 203 
rind marginali elevatà recurvá instructis. “This beau- 
tiful insect possesses a forrn and character perfectly dis- 
tinct from the species of Cychrus which inhabit the Old 
World, as much so, in fact, as Scaphinotus, and far 
more so than ;Spheróderus of Déjean.” In this last 
opinion, as in many of Mr. Newman's opinions, I am 
happy most fully to coincide. But, if this gentleman 
had seen and compared together all the known species 
e Cychrus, Spheroderus, and Scaphinotus, I think that : 
he would . have suppressed his new genus, or would 
al still further subdivided the genera already estab- 
lished. at the expense of the Fabrician genus Cychrus. 
Whena genus becomes unwieldy from the number of 
species included in it, we are fully justified in subdi- 
viding it; and, moreover, when a species presents pecu- 
liarities of structure indicating, and accompanied by, a 
departure from: the ordinary habits of the species with 
which it has been associated, it ought to be withdrawn 
from them, and should be made the type of another 
genus. Count Déjean enumerates only. eleven species 
of Cychrus, three of Spheróderus, and one of Scaphi- 
notus, in the third edition of his Catalogue, or fifteen 
species altogether; and probably the whole number of 
known species belonging to these three genera will not, 
at the present time, greatly exceed twenty. As far as 
they have been observed and recorded, the habits of all 
_ these species are precisely the same ; and in their forms 
we can trace a gradual approach to a common charac- 
ter, After mature, consideration and a thorough reéx- 
amination of the various species in my own collection 
and in my care, although the opinion may be premature 
before more is known respecting the larve of these 
