EHYNCHOPHOEA. 



191 



ii. Legs fossorial, compressed ; anterior 

 tibiae almost always denticulate or 

 crenulate on their external border. 

 Rostrum absent or rudimentary. 



1. First tarsal joint much shorter than 



the following joints taken together. Scolytidae. 



2. First tarsal joint almost as long as all 



the following joints taken together; 



antennae with only six joints .... Platypidae. 



If the Bkestthidje are included they fall into the second section,, 

 with the maxillary palpi abnormal, rigid, and tapering, and may 

 be distinguished further by the very elongate form, straight 

 rostrum, and the moniliform and straight antennae, which are, 

 as a rule, without a club. 



Mr. G-ny Marshall, who has undertaken to work out the 

 Cueculionib-yE of the Indian Fauna writes to the effect that he 

 proposes to follow Faust, Sharp, and Ganglbauer, in accepting 

 Lacordaire's general arrangement, rather than that of Leeonte 

 and Horn ; in other words he would divide the Ehynchophora into 

 four families Antheibid.e, Bee^thib-yE, CueculioistdyE, and 

 Scolytid.e. So far as the subdivision of the great complex of 

 the CueculiokiDyE is concerned he has not yet attempted to map 

 it out, beyond making a start on the Adelognathi of Lacordaire ; 

 which are almost conterminous with the OtioeeiiytstchidyE of 

 Leeonte and Horn. In the circumstances it may be best to give 

 some account of Lacordaire's classification of the CueculioistdyE, 

 when we come to refer again to that family. 



We do not feel that we can agree with M. Lameere in 

 considering the BbetntiiidyE as allied to the Cucujtd.e and as 

 belonging to the Clavicorn series. They are distinctly Ehyncho- 

 phoea, as is proved, not only by their general formation and 

 pronounced rostrum, but also by the structure of the maxillary- 

 palpi ; the fact that the only known larva, that of Eupsalis 

 minuta, Drury, possesses legs, is a quite inadequate justification 

 for Lameere's conclusion, especially as we know that larvae both 

 with and without legs occur among the Axtheibiile. It appears, 

 therefore, to say the least, premature to say that " the family of 

 the Bbetstthid.e cannot be attached to any of the families of the 

 Ehynchophoea. The larva alone suffices to show that the 

 BeeisthidyE are not descended from the CueculiojstidyE, or 

 the A^theibldyE, or the BeitchidyE, or the CheykSOmelidyE " ; and 

 that they " are not Phytophaga, for they seem to have no direct 

 parentage, either on the side of the ancestors of the Ceeambycib-yE 

 or of the ancestors of the Cheysomelib-yE.''' It should, however, 

 be remembered that Lameere's theory with regard to the position 

 of the Beeistthidje is not quite a new one ; several of the old 

 entomologists regarded them as transitional between the Cuecu- 

 lionidyE and the old Xylopiiaga, and Imhoff (Vers. Einfiihr. 

 Stud. Col. ii, p. 159, quoted by Lacordaire, vii, p. 404) makes 

 his 9th section of the Coleoptera " Baculicornia " comprise the 



