INSECT A — COLEOPTER A . 
159 
minute, an important comparison might he instituted between the Fauna 
of the continent of New Holland and the island of Van Diemen’s Land, 
as the insects described by me were collected at Port Philip, a point lying 
exactly opposite to the latter. 
CiciNDELiD^. — This family has been subjected to a careful revision, 
in respect to their systematic division, by Lacordaire (Mem. d. 1. Soc. 
Roy. d. Sc. de Liege, tom. i. p. 85). The author divides them into five 
gToups : — I. Manticoridoi embraces the genera Manticora, Platy chile, 
Amblycheila, Omus . — II. Megacephalidce, distinguished from the former 
as well as from the rest, by the peculiar length of the labial-palpi, par- 
ticularly of the stem (erroneously taken by the author for its first joint). 
Oxycheila ; Centrocheila {Pseudoxycheila, Guer.), difiering from Oxy. 
by its triangular labrum, suddenly narrowed anteriorly, and elongated 
into a strong point, containing the 0. hipustulata, Latr. ; Purymorpha, 
Hope ; Megacephala {Aptema, Enc.), confined to M. senegalensis, 
which the author distinguishes from the other Megacephalce comprised 
by Hope under Tetracha, by the completely rounded shoulders of the 
elytra. It is the only one that is wingless, for M. 4^-signata, which the 
author separates as a wingless species in the genus Tetracha, is com- 
pletely winged. There is therefore no sufficient generic distinction 
in the absence of wings, as we do not even find it sufficient for a spe- 
cific distinction, it often enough occurs, that in such species as in general 
are unwinged, winged individuals are found, even independent of cases 
arising from difference of sex. For this reason, I consider that the dis- 
tinction given by the author between Megacephala and Tetracha, is as 
little to be maintained, as he, with justice, has deemed those defined by 
Hope, according to the number of the teeth on the mandibles. Aniara 
(sepulchralis), the separation of which, though scarcely on sufficient 
grounds, yet appears less constrained. Lastly, Iresia. This genus can- 
not here be in its right place ; it is more nearly allied in its habits to 
Euprosopus. The sculpture of the elytra resembles much the Collyridce. 
In the structure of the antennae only, I. Lacordairei shows the character 
of the Megacephalidce. In the I. hinotata, KI., the labial palpi scarcely 
exceed in length the maxillary palpi ; in I. himaculata, Kl., they are 
even shorter ; in I. BesJcii, both are of tolerably equal length. This 
difference in the different species is so much the more striking, as the 
first three, at least, stand in the very closest relation, and the author 
could so much the less presuppose it, as he had only an opportunity of 
examining the first. It is also of consequence, as it shows that the 
relative length of the palpi aftbrds no satisfactory mark of the Megace- 
phalidce and Cicindelidce, — HI. Cicindelidce, the most numerous group. 
Oxygonia, Man., and Cicindela, including Calochroa and Ahroscelis, 
Hope, Cylindera, Westw., and Laphyra, Dup., which the author shows 
as untenable, have simple labial-palpi and anterior tarsi, without an 
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