LUCANUS AND HISTER. 33 



arrive suddenly at a complete change of form; for we find 

 the Msalida resembling the genus Trox, F. in general ap- 

 pearance, while the Syndesid& may be called the Aphodii 

 of the Thalerophagous Recticera ; and the Passalida from 

 their colour and depressed body are, as it were, the Scara- 

 baida of the same tribe. 



With respect to the extreme families of the column, as 

 it is here that the passage from one circle to the other 

 takes place, we find the organs of manducation and the 

 manner of living in each to be most beautifully connected 

 by the genera Sinodendron, Lat., and Lethrus, Lat. The 

 former of these remarkable insects was placed by Fabri- 

 cius with some Bostrichida^, as well on account of the 

 antennae as from other causes ; and Latreille boasts of hav- 

 ing avoided such arrangement, and made it an Oryctes, 

 by paying attention to the number of the tarsi b . But it is 

 doubtful whether the separation on the last account be 

 not even more artificial than the junction on the first ; 

 for these various alterations are rather proofs that our 

 systems are artificial, than that the place last assigned to 

 such anomalous insects ought always to be considered the 

 best. The fact is that Sinodendron has evidently some sort 

 of affinity to the Bostrichides, which would be well worth 

 the trouble of investigation ; while nothing also can be 

 more just than the observation of Latreille, " que le 

 sinodendron est un oryctes avec des antennes de lucane c ." 

 This learned and acute entomologist has not however, 

 as might have been expected, made use of this genus 

 to connect his families of Lncanides and Scarabaides. 

 It is true, indeed, that in his last works he places 



a Syst. Eleuth. vol. ii. p. 376. 



b Wst, Nat. des Crust, et des Ins. vol. x. p. 15. '' Ibid. p. 156. 



D 



