227 
The one rock, however, on which so many entomologists 
have split, is that the Hypocephalus is truly pentamerous ; 
i. e. possesses five jointed Tarsi. 
As is well known, the modern Coleopterous classification 
being mainly based upon the number of Tarsi, this is a very 
serious consideration. All Longicorns being Tetramerous, 
are with but four joints to the Tarsi. 
The Geodephaga (predaceous Land Beetles), arranged at 
the head of all Coleoptera, on account of their higher and 
more perfect organisation, all possess six Palpi. They are 
truly pentamerous; and their mouths are well supplied 
with jaws. I exhibit two of this family which have been 
compared with Hypocephalus, Scarites Polyphemus (Herbst), 
a European species, and Promecodorus hrunnicornis, Dej., 
from Australia, but the resemblance is scarcely even super-^ 
ficial. 
Hypocephalus is pentamerous : but its Palpi are only 
four in number, and its configuration is not that of a geode- 
phagous insect at all. 
The Necrophaga or Clavicornes, to which family the 
describe!* (Hesmarest) and Kev. F. W. Hope i*eferred the 
insect, have the Tarsi 5-jointed; but the antennae are clavi- 
form, the abdomen slightly protruding beyond the squarely- 
cut elytra, and the whole structure of the mouth is quite 
different. 
Some of the Heteromem, in which the first and second 
pair of legs are pentamerous, the posterior always tetrame- 
rous, resemble Hypocephalus, e. g. Chiroscelis, but there is 
no real connection between the insects. 
Amongst the Lamellieornes again, to which Curtis, in 
the very able paper above referred to, assigns this insect, we 
have the Stag Beetles (c/. Cladognathus Confucius ? here 
exhibited), but the mandibles are not vertical, the mouth 
possesses quite different points, and there can be no real 
