COLEOPTERA. 333 
clearness and distinctness with which the conclusions contained therein 
are stated. This notice is not intended as a translation, and space will 
not permit of our going into the reasons for the conclusions reached, 
and the many alterations from the existing order which one finds. We 
can only recommend coleopterists to study them for themselves, but to 
give a few extracts is necessary. M. Lameere suggests that the 
ancestor of Coleoptera should have had the following characters: 
I.—(1) Complete metamorphoses. (2) Four malpighian tubes. (8) 
The mouthparts adapted for biting. (4) A large and free prothorax. 
(5) All the tarsi five-jointed. (6) A pad between the tarsal claws. (7) 
Three ocelli. (8) Hight visible segments to the ventral surface of the 
abdomen. (9) All the coxe conical and projecting. (10) The antennee 
with eleven similar joints. 
II.—This ancestor was a Neuropteron of the Planipennes group ; 
it should have lived under bark, or bored into trunks, and with 
such habits the usefulness of the transformation of the upper wings 
into elytra is evident. He then proceeds to divide the Coleoptera into 
three suborders, to which he gives the names, Cantharidiformes, 
Staphyliniformes, and Carabiformes, which are separated by the 
neuration of the wings. These again are subdivided, as is shown in 
the table appended, facts and arguments being presented in the notes 
to support their position. We have not here whole groups of families 
which have no connection whatever with each other, bundled together 
under such names as ‘‘ Polymorpha,”’ &c¢., as has occurred in a recent 
scheme of classification. 
One point, however, will no doubt meet with considerable opposi- 
tion, and that is the Pulicidae being placed in the Staphyliniformia, 
from the general source of which M. Lameere considers that they are 
derived. In the Ann. de la Soc. Kntom. de Belgique, tome xliii., 
1899, he remarks :—‘‘ As for the fleas, regarded nearly unanimously 
as Diptera, I have no doubt they are Coleoptera of the group Staphy- 
linoides sensu Ganglbauer. Heymons has demonstrated definitely 
that they are not Diptera . . . . butin proving that the unpaired 
appendage of the mouth is only the labrum, he has removed the last 
barrier which hinders their being considered beetles; they have, in fact, 
eleven-jointed and not three-jointed antenne, contrary to all the 
descriptions, and this character leaves no doubt as to their parentage.”’ 
M. Lameere gives at the end of his paper a table of his scheme of 
classification which we here reproduce :— 
COLEOPTERA. 
STAPHYLINIFORMIA. CARABIFORMIA. 
Silphiinae. Rhysodidae. 
Clambinae. Carabidae. 
Sphaeriinae. Paussidae. 
ene Hydzroscaphinae. Omophroninae. 
sillpaisee: Scaphidiinae. Haliplinae. 
Corylophinae. Nae Amphizoinae. 
Trichopteryginae. Dyeccidee: Hygrobiinae. 
Scydmaeninae. Hydroporinae. 
Histeridae. Dytiscinae. 
Staphylinidae. Gyrinidae. 
Pselaphidae. 
Platypsyllidae. CANTHARIDIFORMIA. 
Pulicidae. Teredilia, 
Lymexylidae. 
