CHAPTER IV. 



ON THE NATURAL AFFINITIES WHICH THE LIN- 

 NiEAN SCARABiEI BEAR TO EACH OTHER. 



1 HE preceding general arrangement was obtained in an 

 attempt to combine the anatomy with the habitus of in- 

 sects, and more especially by considering their organs of 

 manducation with a continual reference to the manner of 

 living. This method of considering entomology, besides 

 the very questionable merit of novelty, possesses no small 

 portion of interesting facts in its developementj as the fol- 

 lowing observatioris will prove. 



The herbivorous pentameroiis Coleoptera^ which have 

 clavate antenme, and their anterior tibia externally spinose 

 or denlated^, that is all tlie Lamellicornes of Latreille, 

 together Avith the Linn^an genus Hister, may be divided 

 into two branches, viz. Rectucera and Petalocera, which 

 are simply to be distinguished thus — the former by antenna 

 as it were broken, and the latter by having them straight, 

 or at least forming no sharp angle in their extent. 



* 1 had originally, for the sake of convenience, comprised all tliese in- 

 sects under the general nameo( Ac anlhipo da; but was subsequently induced 

 to cancel it, from a fear that it might give rise to erroneous notions of division. 

 For it is not to be imagined that the Acanthopoda could have represented 

 any natural division, since their extreme genera may be shown to be con- 

 nected with other Coleoplera in as intimate a manner as we shall see that 

 they are among themselves. The Acanlhopuda, therefore, could only have 

 been considered as forming four links in a chain, and not as an insulated 

 tribe. 



" This definition is a good instance of the difficulty of fint'^ng characters 



