64 



genera, and containing probably more than 5,000 

 catalogued species of the present day. We then 

 arrive again at the Aquatic Coleoptera by genera, 

 which may properly be termed Sub-aquatic. Is 

 such an arrangement natural ? — certainly not. Lin- 

 neus, Fabricius, and Olivier, three illustrious Ento- 

 mologists of different countries, yet of the same 

 period, followed in this instance the natural arrange- 

 ment; later writers have unfortunately changed these 

 views, and it is with pleasure and satisfaction there- 

 fore I record, that our countryman Stephens (no 

 unimportant authority in such matters) has returned 

 to the original Linnean arrangement, and in his wake 

 I willingly follow, as he is, in the language of Bar- 

 rington, thoroughly an " Out-door Naturalist," It 

 would be a great gain to Entomology if the same 

 writer (when he has finished the publication of our 

 indigenous species) could bestow some of his at- 

 tention on Exotics. 



Other systems soon followed that of the illustrious 

 Swede. Degeer was the first eminent author who 

 trod the path traced by Aristotle and Linneus, the 

 organs of locomotion, (chiefly those of flight) united 

 with the structure of the mouth, being the charac- 

 teristics belonging to it. Fabricius followed Degeer 

 in introducing the manducatory system derived prin- 

 cipally from the organization of the mouth; and 

 had internal anatomy as well as general external 

 form been attended to, it would most likely at the 

 present day have remained unquestioned. 



Latreille, whose system has in a great measure 



