JOURNAL 



OF THE 



ASIATIC SOCIETY OF BENGAL 



Part II.— NATURAL SCIENCE. 



SUPPLEMENT.-1890. 



1 — Catalogue of the Insecta of the Oriental Region. No. 2, Order 

 Coleoptera, Family Carabidae. — By E. T. Atkinson, B. A. 



Dr. Horn writes that the Carabidm form one of the members of the 

 Adephagous series of Coleoptera, which ' is readily recognized by the 

 predaceous character of its mouth parts, its slender antennae (except in 

 the Gyrinidas), pentamerous tarsi, and the structure of the first 

 abdomiual segment, which is in all cases divided or hidden by the posterior 

 coxae in such a manner that it is entirely lateral, rarely appearing as 

 a small triangular piece between the posterior coxse.' 



The classification of the Carahidcs is still unsettled, and, notwithstand- 

 ing the very great attention paid to this group, there is no generally 

 recognized arrangement that can be followed for the species of the 

 Oriental Region. The number of groups, their extent, relative position, 

 and nomenclature, still leave much to be desired. Leconte, t writing in 

 1862, remarked: — 'Numerous efforts have been made to Indicate a 

 rational distribution of the genera, and the attempts commenced by 

 Latreille and Bonelli, and successively improved by the suggestions of 

 Dejean, Erichson, Schiodte, Lacordaire, and myself, have finally, in the 

 expert hands of Schaum, * assumed a form in which probably permanent 

 results have been obtained.' 



•f- ' Classification of the Coleoptera of North America,' in Smithsonian Miscellaneous 

 Collections, 1862. 



* Naturg. Ins. Deutschl. I860, and ' Das system der Carabicinen,' in Berlin. Ent. 

 Zeits., iv, 1860, p. 161. 



