Insects. 2687 



will scarcely fail to remark, in addition, that the greater development 

 in the eye is in the male sex : again, it is a veritable fact that in those 

 Coleoptera which assume a Dipterous character, through the diminu- 

 tion of their fore and the enlargement of their hind wings, the eyes, 

 especially of the male, also assume the Dipterous character of great 

 development : this is the case in Atractocerus, Myodites, Symbius, 

 and many other genera : in these the eyes occupy almost the entire 

 head, being separated by a narrow linear epicranium, scarcely differ- 

 ing from the same part in the common house-fly. Seeing, then, that 

 in Stylops the Dipterous character is exhibited in excess, its large 

 and projecting eyes are in perfect accordance with this notable law of 

 nature, and exactly harmonise with those of certain small groups of 

 Coleoptera, distinguished by that disparity of wing which is so ex- 

 cessive in Stylops as to be the stumbling-block of all systematists 

 when seeking its affinities. 



The clypeus, or rather that part to which I have assigned the name, 

 has no character, either of figure or magnitude, in any respect ano- 

 malous, — indeed it can hardly be called abnormal : this part may or 

 may not be composed of the anchylosed clypeus and labrum : the 

 presence or absence of such anchylosis would not be extraordinary; 

 the trigonate form of clypeus is not uncommon in Coleoptera, and 

 1 can find nothing in this part of the head, viewed in any light or 

 subjected to any rule of nomenclature, that at all militates against my 

 theory. 



Last, and of least importance, are the antenna? : those of Stylops, 

 Xenos and Elenchus are of unusual structure for either class; but the 

 fortunate discovery of Halictophagus — so evidently allied to the other 

 three, yet so simple and even commonplace in the character of its 

 antennae — shows that these organs, however they may vary in struc- 

 ture, afford no character of higher value than for distinguishing those 

 infinitesimally small and purely artificial groups now known under the 

 name of genera, but which differ, toto ccelo, from the groups thus ori- 

 ginally denominated by Linneus and Fabricius. I might cite abun- 

 dant instances of antennas quite as abnormal as those of Stylops, and 

 I might show that the abnormity is of a like kind, the inflation or 

 elongation or branching of a certain joint, and this numerically the 

 same, in the male insect; but it would be an unprofitable labour, 

 seeing that the fact must be universally admitted. 



