No. 9.— 1856-8 ] new ceylon coleoptera. 



27 



that on a point so easily ascertained as this, any difference of 

 opinion should exist ; still, Westwood, in his " Modern Classifi- 

 cation of Insects," in describing the same family, makes state- 

 ments which imply the contrary. However, Lacordaire's 

 description, being by 15 years,— more in fact, — the most recent, 

 is, from this reason alone, entitled to be considered before all 

 others ; and, looking upon it in this light, that is, as the essence 

 of all former observations, I shall, for the present, occupy 

 myself with it alone. 



According to this description, as mentioned above, the 

 insects which it regards have the elytra soldered together, and 

 are destitute of wings. This being the case, I was startled to 

 find that, out of the thirteen species described below, nine or 

 ten which I examined in this respect, had neither the elytra 

 soldered, nor were they destitute of wings— ore the contrary 

 the elytra were unconnected in the middle, and the wings were 

 nearly double the size of the whole insect and could not possibly 

 he overlooked. I would willingly suppose that the 100 species 

 of this family contained in European collections, and princi- 

 pally derived from Europe and North America, agreed with 

 Lacordaire's description, and that the Ceylon species were 

 exceptions to the general rule, had not Westwood's observation, 

 alluded to above, corroborated my own, thus rendering me 

 suspicious of some unaccountable mistake or oversight some- 

 where or other. That this mistake cannot consist in a slip of 

 the pen, or a misprint in the g. des GoUopteres quoted above, 

 is clear from the obvious care which has in every respect been 

 bestowed upon this work, and from the same remarks being 

 repeated in different words. 



Where then this mistake is,- — upon what ground it rests — it 

 would, under my circumstances, be useless to attempt to 

 unravel. However, it appears certain to me that some more 

 detailed and positive remarks on the subject cannot be super- 

 fluous, and must be new to some entomologists. 



Placing the fullest confidence, as every one would do without 

 hesitation, in the infallibility of the description of the Belgian 

 author, it was not likely that I should have looked for wings 



