OF MANDIBULATA. 421 



animals being in a manner insulated is very advantageous 

 for those who may be in search of a natural method of 

 distribution, because the most general ideas which can be 

 formed of it are thus confined within certain hmits, and 

 the greatest evil of generalizing is thus hi limine counter- 

 acted. 



It was from such reflections that I had much less 

 reluctance to confide in the accuracy of my eye in seizing 

 the natural affinities of the Coleopfera than I should other- 

 wise perhaps have experienced, being convinced that the 

 peculiarities of the order made it equally nnpossible to in- 

 sert any thing in it which ought not to be there, as to 

 withdraw from its just province any insect which might 

 be truly Coleopterous. Thus, I threw the whole into the 

 great groups which occurred most obviously to the sight, 

 leaving out of consideration all genera with respect to whose 

 affinities there was the least reason for doubt. It then 

 became necessary, in pursuance of that elementary maxim 

 of Natural History, " Character non est ut genus fiat, sed 

 ut genus Tioscatur," to seek for general characters where- 

 with the divisions thus obtained inight be defined ; and 

 for some time I could discover none that were in any 

 manner applicable. Some satisfaction, therefore, was ex- 

 perienced when, on happening at length to think of their 

 larvas, I discovered that each of my groups had, as far as 

 my knowledge of them went, a peculiarity of character. 

 This, however, like all other natural peculiarities which 

 distinguish groups, can only be described by an enumera- 

 tion of the types to which the animals composing each 

 I group more or less approach ; or in this case rather by a 

 classification of the types to which the larvte of each 

 group may, in a greater or less degree, be assimilated. Of 





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