INSECTA. 
417 
tion of a canon of zoological classification, from which no author 
should be at liberty to depart. But there is another difficulty 
which threatens to overwhelm entomologists especially, namely, 
the excessive multiplication of genera, an evil which is now 
attaining such a magnitude as to render the study even of a 
limited group of insects a matter of the greatest labour and 
difficulty. This arises evidently fiom an undue prevalence of the 
analytical mode of study. Entomologists are constantly look- 
ing out for differences in the objects of their investigation ; 
every species that does not readily fall into an established 
genus is made the type of a new one, and as the notion of 
enlarging the boundaries of a genus established upon insuffi- 
cient materials appears to be repugnant"' to the minds of ento- 
mologists, the evil must necessarily go on increasing. The 
greater part of the genera characterized by Pascoe in the work 
before us are marked as new ; in many cases they contain only 
one species, and the author s remarks are sufficient to show 
the very slight characters upon which they are separated. 
ScHJODTE, in his paper On the Classification of Ceram- 
byces^^ (Naturhist. Tidsskr. ser. 3. vol. ii.), remarks on the dif- 
ferent modes of ambulatory progression adopted by Arthropod 
animals in general, and Insects in particular, and on the organs 
which assist in this action. Nearly all Insects are plantigrade, 
and those of them possess foot-pads whose mode of life re- 
quires that they should move on highly inclined dry surfaces 
these foot-pads consist of an immense number of hairs, forming 
a nearly smooth surface as soft as velvet. The action of the 
foot-pads is assisted by the spurs and claws. The functions of 
these are explained by Schjodte, who indicates that in some 
cases the claws would be in the way, and shows that, in the 
so-called Tetramerous Beetles especially, the contrivance for 
raising the claw -joint, so as to prevent its impeding the motions 
of the insect, consists mainly in the reduction of the true penulti- 
mate joint to the form of small nodule at the base of the claw- 
joint. This character, the possession of Tetramerous or pseudo- 
pentamerous tarsi, is therefore regarded by the ?tuthor as not of 
the importance usually ascribed to it, being, as he says, not 
typical but biological, or dependent on mode of life ; and this 
applies to the family-characters of the groups Cerambyces, Cur- 
culiones, and Chrysomel< 2 . 
Schjodte further remarks upon the contrast betwen the 
methods of Latreille and Fabricius in entomology, and expresses 
his belief in the correctness of the Fabrician principle of found- 
ing systematic groups on the characters presented by the organs 
of the mouth, as it is upon the structure of these that the entire 
conformation of the insect is dependent. In the Cerambyces he 
indicates three types of buccal structure, readily recognized by 
18G4. [voL. I.] 3 E 
