126 



MACLEAY SYSTEM OF 



expecting any trace of the evil principle, but here, toe, 

 there is a sub-typical division." These, says our natu- 

 ralist, " are distinguished by their caterpillars being armed 

 with formidable spines or prickles, which in general are 

 possessed of some highly acrimonious or poisonous quali- 

 lty, capable of injuring those who touch them. It is 

 only," continues Mr. Swainson, ** when extensive re- 

 searches bring to light a uniformity of results, that we can 

 venture to believe they are so universal as to deserve be- 

 ing ranked as primary laws. Thus, when a celebrated 

 entomologist denounced as impure the black and lurid 

 beetles forming the saprophagous petalocera of Mr. Ma 

 cleay, a tribe living only upon putrid vegetable matter, 

 and hiding themselves in their disgusting food, or in dark 

 hollows of the earth, neither of these celebrated men sus- 

 pected the absolute fact, elicited from our analogies of 

 this group, that this very tribe constituded the sub-typi- 

 cal group of one of the primary divisions of coleopterous 

 insects : nor had they any suspicion that, by the filthy 

 habits and repulsive forms of these beetles, nature had 

 intended that they should be types or emblems of hun- 

 dreds of other groups, distinguished by peculiarities 

 equally indicative of evil. On the other hand, the tha- 

 lerophagous petalocera, forming the typical group of the 

 same division, present us with all the perfections and ha- 

 bits belonging to their kind. These families of beetles 

 live only upon fresh vegetables ; they are diurnal, and 

 sport in the glare of day, pure in their food, elegant in 

 their shapes, and beautiful in their colors."* 



The third type, (first of the three aberrant,) called by 

 Mr. Swainson, the natatorial, or aquatic, are chifly re 

 markable for their bulk, the disproportionate size of the 

 nead, and the absence, or slight development of the feet. 

 They partake of the predaceous and destructive character 

 of the adjoining sub- typical group, and the means of their 

 predacity are generally found in the mouth alone. In the 

 primary division of the animal kingdom, we find the type 

 in the radiata, not one of which lives out of water. In the 

 vertebrata, it is in the fishes. In both of these, feet are 

 totally wanting. Descending to the class mammalia, we 

 have this type in the cetacea, which present a compara- 

 tively slight development of limbs. In the aves, as we 

 have seen, the type is presented in the natatores, whos* 

 * Distribution and Classification of Animals, p. 548 



