AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



This Volume was begun some years ago, but partly through 

 want of leisure and partly through the necessity of rewriting 

 considerable portions of the work in order to bring it up to 

 date, its issue has been delayed. 



There was no intention at first of drawing up a general 

 introduction to the Coleoptera, but it was thought advisable 

 by Colonel Bingham, the late editor of the series, that this 

 should be done, and it is therefore added. The more, how- 

 ever, the question is studied, the more impossible it appears 

 to lay down hard and fast rules with regard to phylogeny, 

 classification, or in fact any general point connected with 

 the Order; what is accepted one year is rejected the next. 

 Any introduction must therefore be regarded as provisional 

 and as merely a help towards further knowledge. 



I must express my thanks to my old friend Dr. David 

 Sharp, whose system I have in the main followed, and who 

 has always been most ready to assist me with advice or 

 criticism, and also to Dr. W. Horn (who on several occasions 

 has sent me unique specimens for examination) for the great 

 help he has given me with the Cicindelid^e, and to Herr 

 Ludwig Ganglbauer not only for the permission to make use 

 of several of the illustrations in his excellent work ' Die 

 Kafer von Mitteleuropa/ but for the] exceedingly kind letter 



