CLASSIFICATION OF THE RHYNCHOPHOROUS COLEOPTERA. 389 
which no entomologist ever refers without finding original ma- 
terial by which he can profit; a remarkable instance of the good 
results to be obtained by a careful and intelligent study of a very 
limited fauna. The Rhynchophorous series is divided as follows : 
Segments of the abdomen immovable, 2d and 3d nearly equal 
IsOTOMA. 
Bruchide, Anthribide (including Urodon), Rhinomaceride, Atte- 
labidee 
Abdomen with the 1st and 2d segments connate, the remaining three 
movable, the 2d usually much longer than the . ANISOTOMA. 
Apionide, Curculionide, Cossonide (including Calandra), Tomicide. 
From a survey of the different schemes of arrangement which 
have been thus briefly reviewed, it is evident that while the prin- 
cipal types of the Rhynchophorous series, and the main divisions 
of the great family Curculionidæ have been clearly perceived, the 
attempts to define these important forms have failed in a greater 
or less degree, on account of the want of -proper subordination in 
the characters made use of: all of them natural, all of them im- 
portant, though in a less degree than supposed by the expounder 
of each particular system. 
To supplement the memoirs above referred to, there came in 
More recent times the beginning of a systematic study of our 
Species of Curcylionidæ by Dr. George H. Horn, a careful and con- 
Scientious study of the Calandride and Cossonidæ and of some 
Mecorhynch genera of the United States.* In the introductory 
remarks he observes :— : 
‘One character is mentioned in the following pages that ap- 
pears to have escaped notice. In most if not all of the genera of 
Mecorhynques, the males have eight and the females seven dorsal 
abdominal segments. The Calandrides and Cossonides appear not 
_ to possess this character, as also all the Brachyrhynques which I 
have had time to examine.” 
The value of this original observation of Dr. Horn is very great, 
but the limitation which he has placed upon it, though correct as 
: Tegards the Calandride and Cossonide types, is erroneous as regards 
the Brachyrhynes, which have the abdominal sexual characters 
Precisely as in the genera in which he first observed them. So too 
have the Brenthidæ, and all the anomalous sub-families of Curculi- 
í * Contributions to a Knowledge of the Curculionidæ of the United States. Proc. 
m. Philosophical Soc. 1873, 407. 
