4 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



its typical Tribe, the Euptera offer no very material obstacle to the accomplish- 

 ment of his purpose, a number of rival forms next present themselves, each 

 preferring seemingly well founded claims to guide him towards a natural arrange- 

 ment. Under the present head, perhaps, it may be useful to discuss this subject, 

 a clear insight into which will prove, that it is not at all wonderful that Entomo- 

 logists have adopted different methods of arrangement, and that each, is in some 

 degree right. It may first be asked — what is that Typical Form, from which, led 

 by nature, in an attempt to arrange the insects of the present Order, we must set 

 off, as from a common centre or summit, round which all, as it were, revolve, and 

 towards which all tend ? This is a question, even in the present advanced state of 

 the science, difficult to answer ; for we have beetles before us of vast bulk and 

 strength, elephants in the class of insects, but which are distinguished neither by 

 the swiftness of their motion nor by the elegance and beauty of their forms; others 

 we have, less clumsy indeed and gigantic, but remarkable for the perfection and 

 symmetry of their general structure ; the lightness and velocity of their motions 

 both on the earth and in the air ; and for the splendour and brilliance of their 

 colours. Such, with only one or two exceptions, are the Euptera or Tiger Beetles. 

 Amongst the higher animals, the Lion, chief of the Predaceous Quadrupeds, is 

 usually accounted as the king of beasts ; a similar reason will justify modern 

 Entomologists for regarding the above tribe of beetles as the typical and most 

 perfect form amongst insects, especially Coleoptera, instead of the Lamellicorn 

 beetles, which Linne had elevated to that rank. 



Having selected a typical or central tribe, let us next consider its composition. 

 As far as at present known, it is composed of three principal groups. One remark- 

 able for its long cylindrical neck and slender body, and for having all the tarsi of 

 both sexes dilated and furnished with a brush, the penultimate joint terminating 

 in a single lobe, the type of which is CoUiuris longicollis ; another with a short 

 depressed neck, a stouter body, slender tarsi, with only the three first joints of the 

 hand of the males slightly dilated, and covered underneath with a brush, and 

 the penultimate joint not lobed, the type of which is Cicindela campestris ; a 

 third, removed to a vast distance from the preceding ones both in its aspect and 

 many of its characters : in the former and its colour, which is a dismal black, 

 resembling Latreilles Melasomes ; as to the latter, though the claw of its maxillae 

 articulates with the lobe, and the mandibles are armed by long and threatening 

 teeth as in Cicindela, yet having a neck or prothorax, like that which distinguishes 

 the males in Anthia, bilobed behind ; having the surface of the elytra plane with a 



