THE SYNTHETICAL METHOD. 4G7 



pes, and one of the two circles, into which each of these 

 groups is divisible, to be osculant. This however is too 

 violent a supposition, and besides, to say the truth, does not 

 entirely destroy the anomaly ; and therefore I am obliged 

 to confess myself at present ignorant of the means by which 

 the Iuliform larvae are to be resolved into families. Nor 

 do I see any other means of extricating ourselves from the 

 obscurity in which this part of my subject is involved, 

 than by an investigation of the Linnsean genera Ptinus, 

 JBuprestis, Elater, and Dermestes, upon the same princi- 

 ple as that which I have pursued in the analysis of La- 

 treille's Lamellicorms. The deficiency of our information 

 as to the subordinate affinities of the above-mentioned 

 Linnaean genera, is so great that I do not feel myself au- 

 thorized to proceed further by the synthetical method. 

 But from the contents of this volume, I think the reader 

 must be convinced that the Scarabaus Sacer is situated in 

 nature nearly as follows : 

 1. Animalia. 

 2. Annulosa. 



3. Mandibulata. 

 4. Coleoptera. 



5. Larva Chilognathiformes* 



Acanthopoda? (Here occurs an uncertainty 

 as to the groups from a defici- 

 ency of proper analysis.) 

 6. Petalocera Saprophaga. 

 7. Scarabaidce. 

 8. Scarabceus. 

 Its place as a species in the genus Scarabceus, shall ap= 

 pear in the next chapter, when, with the exception of the 

 investigation still requisite to show the relation which the 

 2 H 2 



