SECTIONS AND FAMILIES OF THE COLEOI'TEHA. 5o 
This arrangement, although well marked, and in 
most cases apparently natural, cannot be strictly ad- 
hered to ; as in the first section there are numerous 
species not possessing five joints to all the tarsi, and 
in the two last there is really a small joint at the 
articulation of the apical joint of the tarsi which 
escaped the notice of the original founder ; in fact, so 
artificial is the system that many modern writers 
ignore the larger divisions altogether, and regard the 
order as composed of upwards of a hundred families 
without collecting them into the larger groups : for 
tho sake of convenience, however, they may be divided 
as follows for the ordinary student : — 
I. The Carnivora or Adephaga, sometimes styled 
Filicornia, which fall into two distinct sections 
(connected, however, by intermediate families). 
i. The Geodephaga, or Land Carnivorous Beetles. 
ii. The Hydradepliaga, or Water Carnivorous 
Beetles. 
II. Tho Hydrophilidce or Palpicornia, often regarded 
as a section of the unwieldy group Clavicornia. 
III. The Clavicornia, which are in this work divided, 
for convenience sake only, into two sections. 
i. The Staphylinidce (Rove-Beetles), or, as they 
have been often termed, Brachelytra. 
ii. The Necrophaga, or Carrion-feeders and their 
allies. 
IV. The Lamellicornia , or Chafers and their allies. 
V. The Serricornia, divided into two sections. 
i. The Buprestidce and Elateridm , or Skip-Jacks 
and their allies. 
ii. The Malacodermata, or Soldier-Beetles and 
their allies. 
