84 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



followed Mr. Mac Leay's arrangement, which places the Brachelytra at the end of 

 his circle of Chilopodimorpha : but as he does not connect it with the point from 

 which he at first sets out, nor indeed with any of his Cicindelldcc, it seems to fall 

 short of his system. Connected as it is, as I shall presently shew, with the Gea- 

 dephaga and Necrophaga of Mac Leay, on each side by more than one link, even 

 this would not lead to a natural arrangement. 



We see then, as in the former instance, that both these gentlemen, according to 

 their different views, were correct, and followed nature ; Mr. Mac Leay, in placing 

 the Philhydrida next to the Hydradephaga, and M. Latreille, in placing the Bra- 

 chelytra next to the Adephaga in general. I shall now assign the reasons which 

 induce me to prefer M. Latreille's arrangement. 



Scarcely any tribe of insects seems to be found in such various situations and in 

 such different substances as the one in question. Some are found in dry and sandy 

 spots ; others in humid ones ; some under stones ; others in chalk ; some under 

 bark ; others in the wounds of trees where the sap exudes ; some on the shore of 

 the sea, or of aestuaries under the sea-weed ; others under or in decaying vegetable 

 substances ; some again in flowers ; many in the various kinds of fungi ; the ma- 

 jority perhaps in cow-dung; and several, lastly, in dead flesh and the carcases of 

 animals. But though their range is thus nearly universal, and the substances they 

 frequent are so various, are we from hence to conclude that these substances are 

 their appropriate food, or may we not rather infer that their principal object in fre- 

 quenting most of them is to devour the larvae of other insects that are bred there ? 

 Olivier and Latreille appear both to have been of this opinion ; 2 and if we examine 

 the insects themselves we shall find characters, in the majority of them, that indi- 

 cate a predaceous character. Their very aspect, at least that of many, excites the 

 idea of a ferocious animal ; especially when they move with their threatening jaws 

 expanded, and their abdomen turned over their back, like the scorpion when pre- 

 paring to strike. These jaws also, or mandibles, much resemble those of the 

 Adephaga, and are of a laniary description, which could only be useful to predatory 

 animals, to enable them to seize and lacerate their prey ; they usually also cross 

 each other at the tip like the tribe just named, especially the Cic'mdelidce. The 

 maxillae too of the generality have the upper lobe palpiform and Particulate, 3 

 though not so slender as in the Adephaga. Their alimentary canal, as appears 

 both from Ramdhor and L. Dufour, 4 does not essentially differ from that of the 



' - Oliv. 7ns. iii, No. 42, 3. Latr. N. D. D'H. N. xxxii, 116. 



3 Grav. Micr. Prolegom. xxxix, note, says they are triarticulate, but they are not so in Goerius olens. 



4 Raradh. Verd. Ins. t. iii,/. 6. Latr. Crust. Arachn. et Ins. i, 433, note 2. 



