38 REMARKS ON THE LINN^AN GENERA 



"neglectis antennis Histerem a Scarabao nemo distinguet* ." 

 Degeer, whose entomological sagacity one can never suffi- 

 ciently admire, placed Ulster next to Lucqnus, and re- 

 marks, that it appears to form a link between the Scarabai 

 and Dermestes. Latreille makes it a member of his family 

 Spharidiota, and remarks that "aucun insecte de la division 

 des Byrrhes n'a comme les escarbots ces deux characteres, 

 dntermes brisees, mandibuies avancees h :" and indeed it is 

 true ; for such are the characters of his family of Lucani- 

 des, to which Idister naturally conducts us from the Byrrhi. 

 This affinity did not escape the usual accuracy of Gyllenhall, 

 who places his new family Histeroides immediately after 

 the Lucanoides, and before Spharidiota, with the just ob- 

 servation that " Familia lOrna D l Latreille Necrophagi 

 nempe comprehendit genera ' plura nimis discrepantia, quare 

 aptius censui Histeres a reliquis separare ." 



Not having sufficiently studied the Saprophagous Rec- 

 tdcera, I shall not attempt to say where or by what oscu- 

 lant genera they are connected with the thalerophagous 

 circle. It may be, that these interesting insects are not 

 yet discovered: but my point will be sufficiently established 

 if I can prove that the Histerida have a strong affinity to 

 the Lucaiiida in general; and if I can show the existence 

 of insects belonging to one circle which want some of its 

 distinctive characters, and thus approach to the other. For 

 this purpose, in the first place, I take the following ana- 

 logous characters from the description of a profound na- 

 turalist, who never seems to have suspected the affinity, and 



a Ent. Cam. p. 13. 



b Hist. Nat. des Crust, et des Ins. vol. ix. p. 191. 



c Gyllen. Ins. Suec. vol. i. p. 74. 



