420 ON THE TRIBES 



of future analysis, I may proceed to make a few remarks 

 on the 



COLEOPTERA. 

 The metamorphosis of these Insects is technically term- 

 ed incomplete ; by which is meant that the change of form 

 from the larva to the imago state has taken place through 

 the medium of a third or nympha form, which is wholly 

 different from the two others, besides being inactive and 

 incapable of taking nourishment. Now, if in addition to 

 this be taken the circumstances that the larvae have all a 

 constant form, in which, while the thorax is rarely distinct, 

 there is always a corneous head furnished with mandibles 

 and maxillte ; if it be remarked that the nymphae have 

 the upper wings much thicker and larger than the two 

 lower, we shall probably have stated every thing that 

 is known to apply generally to the undeclared state of 

 the Coleoptera. But although there be litUe in this 

 that will separate them on a first glance from some other 

 Mandibulata of the order of Neiiroptera, yet their perfect 

 or imago state is so peculiar that perhaps no order of in- 

 sects is better defined than that of the Coleoptera. The 

 total absence of ocelli, the enlargement of the second seg- 

 ment of the body, and the peculiar manner in which the 

 wings of the most part are folded under the elytra, render 

 a mistake with respect to the contents of the order quite 

 impossible. Whether this particularity be natural, or 

 whether it results from the imperfect state of our know- 

 ledge of species, is a question only for time to resolve ; 

 but analogy would persuade us to assign the latter alter- 

 native as the cause of these insects forming what, if we 

 adopt the ordinary expression, may be termed so very 

 natural an order. The accident, however, of a group of 



