THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



63 



Abbe, and for the world the detailed result of years of the most care- 

 ful observation and accurate judgment. 



Latreille's first work was- published in 1796, and enumerated 148 

 genera of coleoptera. In 1806 appeared his most important book, 

 "■Genera Crustaceorium et Insectorium," and many notable works 

 on Natural History occupied the intervening years. When we turn 

 to the coleopterous classification of Latreille we find him facile princeps 

 among the tarsalists to all appearances, for he adds to Olivier's four 

 sections of Pentamem, Tetramera, Heteramera, and Trimera, two more 

 Dimem, to accommodate the, as he thought, two-jointed Poelaphidce, and 

 Monomeva for Clambus armadillo. But although Latreille based his 

 classification nominally on tarsal development, he was by no means 

 unconcious of the arbitrary character of such a system : he says him- 

 self " Articulorum tarsorum progressio numerica decrescens in methodo 

 naturali non admittenda," and we findj although he makes tarsal dis- 

 tinctions determine his major groups, he forms minor ones of a more 

 natural character which have since almost effaced the superior tarsal 

 divisions in which they were included. Thus taking a modern classi- 

 fication, say that of Cox for example, we find the minor groups of 

 Latreille, Adephaga, Brachelytra, Palpicovnia, Clavicomia, Lamellicorniq, 

 Sternoxi, Malacoderma, which are included in Pentamem, all form the 

 major groups of the modern system, and equivalent in grade to Hetero- 

 mera, which is Latreille's second major division, and includes minor 

 ones which we not recognize. You will thus see the extreme value 

 which I think should be attached to this work of Latreille's, for he 

 inserted between the tarsal arrangement and the generic, new 

 divisions which had the merit of being obviously natural and which 

 opened the door to modern families and sub-families. In fact Latreille 

 was really the originator of the family as a scientific group, yet al- 

 though a master of generalization, he was by no means weak in 

 detail. A glance at a specific list will show to how many species the 

 initials " Lat." are affixed, and the following are a few of the genera 

 indispensable now, which owe their origin to this master : Bembidium, 

 Lebia, Loricera, Nebria, Panageus, Licinus, Harpalus, Clivina, Caymindis, 

 and Halip his. 



Latreille having been recognized by the whole of Europe as the 

 first of living entomologists, and having been created Chevalier de 

 Legion d'honneur, died in 1833, old enough to see the great English 

 school of systematists formed by McLeay and his successors. 



But long before the death of Latreille, entomologists were in- 

 creasing in every European country, and it will be more convenient to 



