7© 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



[April, 



clay, so in the embryo of the sagacious ant, the highly developed 

 beetle, that is, their larval form, we discern the origin of their being, 

 and the affinity which connects them with the worm. But we are. 

 pursuing a path that leads to heights too steep and too hard for us to 

 follow ; enough has been said, however, to indicate what it seems to 

 us will be the lines of the scientific classification of the future. But 

 the M'Leay of that future has yet to arise. Since the time of West- 

 wood, the tendency has been to a simpler, rather than to a more com- 

 plex classification. Taking the catalogue of Dr. Sharp, or " Cox's 

 Manual," as instances of the modern system, we find we come back 

 pretty nearly to the French Abbe, released from his discredited tarsal 

 system. We call our main divisions Geodephaga, and the rest, and 

 of these it was Latreille who first proposed the names Palpicornia, 

 Clavicornia, Brachelytra, Lamellicornia, Sternoxi, Malacoderma, 

 Rhyncophora, and Longicornia ; Heteromera we owe to Olivier, and 

 Geodephaga and Hydradephaga to M'Leay, or if we unite them and 

 call them Adephaga, to Clairville, while Phytophaga is a name first 

 used by Kirby. We are not unaware that our most recent authorities 

 on the Coleoptera do not appear to lean to a more simpler system, 

 but rather the reverse, and we cannot do better than close this paper 

 by a quotation from the preface of a great work, which being pub- 

 lished only last year, may be taken as the last ex Cathedra utterance 

 on the subject. Canon Fowler writes : — " In fact our knowledge of 

 " the Coleoptera, their relations to one another, and the proper 

 " positions they ought severally to hold, may be said to be as yet in 

 " its infancy, except for a few broad lines that are followed by all, 

 "their classification appears to be more or less artificial, and too 

 " often a matter of taste and convenience rather than of scientific 

 " accuracy." 



The Determination of Species of Lepidoptera by 

 examination of their Anal Appendages. 



By C. A. BRIGGS. 



Mr. Pierce's revival of the old idea of determining species of lepir 

 doptera by means of the anal organs of the male, will, I fear, lead to 

 no better results than it has hitherto done. Few, h am afraid, now 

 study Dr. Buchanan White's careful paper on the genus Oporabia : 

 still fewer, I expect, will follow Mr. Pierce into the wider range he 



