ANNULOSA JAVANICA. 



COLEOPTERA. 



An attempt has been made in the Horcs Entomological to shew that if we gradually limit our 

 views, and descend from the consideration of the kingdom Animalia to the department or sub- 

 kingdom Annulosa, from this again to the class Mandibulata, and then to the order Coleoptera, 

 thus leaving each groupe for one of its component minor groupes, we shall at length observe 

 the last-mentioned, viz. the order Coleoptera, to resolve itself into five minor groupes, which I 

 have termed tribes. Now one of these tribes consists of insects having Chilopodiform larva? ; 

 that is, their larvae are carnivorous, having their head furnished with ocelli and strong man- 

 dibles, generally pierced for suction. Their body is subdepressed, composed of angular, or at 

 least of laterally incontinuous segments, of which all, or at least a certain portion, are each 

 covered with a corneous lamina. Some one of the hinder segments of the body (in general the 

 penultimate or last) is moreover always furnished with at least two styliform appendages, which 

 are sometimes corneous, sometimes membranaceous, and sometimes articulated. From this 

 general resemblance of the larva? to young Chilopoda, the tribe may be termed 



CHILOPODOMORPHA. 



Character Typicus. 



Larva chilopodomorpha plerumque carnivora, corpore processubus duobus posticis styliformibus 

 dorsalibus semper instructo. 



Imago plerumque pentamera, mandibulis cornels, maxillis bipartitis vel processubus duobus ; 

 lacinid interiori in unguem corneum incurvum fere semper desinente ; lacinid exteriore scepius biar- 

 ticulatd interdum palpiformi. 



I have elsewhere shewn that nature appears to have varied less in the structure of the 

 maxillae than in any other part of the mouth of Coleoptera, and have consequently inferred that 

 the Entomologist ought to pay particular attention to the form of the maxillae in the perfect 

 insect. In the tribe having Chilopodiform larvae, we have a remarkable example of the truth of 

 this reasoning, for a particular modification of that form of maxillae which is general to this tribe 

 caused the carnivorous insects, or Adephaga of Clairville, to be early separated from all other 

 Coleoptera by a most anomalous character, viz. that of having six palpi. When Savigny, how- 

 ever, reduced to one general structure the mouth of all winged insects, it followed as an imme- 

 diate consequence, that Coleoptera do not differ so much among themselves as that two or three 

 families should have four maxillary palpi and all the rest only two. We find, accordingly, that 

 a more philosophical view of the subject did not fail to be taken by M. Latreille, as soon as he 

 had weighed with due consideration the theory of M. Savigny.* For instance, the maxillae of 

 Coleoptera may be described generally as being composed of several pieces which are often 

 entirely confluent, and generally so far confluent as to form one mass; the interior palpi (as they 

 are called) of adephagous insects forming almost the only known exception to the rule. But even 



in 

 * Nouveau Dictionnaire d'Hist. Nat., art. Bouche, p. 242. 



