56 
BRITISH BEETLES. 
CHAPTER IX. 
THE GEODEPHAGA, OB LAND CARNIVOROUS BEETLES. 
Section I. The ADEPHAGA possess an outer or 
palpiform lobe or galea to the maxillae, in addition to 
the four-jointed maxillary palpi (Fig. 4, d\ p. 31), 
and are readily separated into two sub-sections; the 
first of which, the Geodephaga, contains terrestrial, 
and the second, the Hydradephaga, aquatic species. 
Sub-section 1. Geodephaga, M'Leay. 
This sub-section, although not employed in the most 
recent Continental systems of classification (wherein 
its families are not distinguished, as a group, from 
those of the Hydradephaga, its aquatic representative), 
will be retained in the present work, being generally 
used in British catalogues, &c., and forming a natural 
division, of which the members are readily separated 
from other beetles. 
It consists, as the name imports, of the predaceous 
ground-beetles, — recognizable by their hard, well- 
developed maudibles or jaws; their legs eminently 
constructed for rapid movement combined with 
strength, and with all the tarsi five-jointed ; and by 
their antennae being slender, nearly always lessened 
towards the tip, and rarely inclined to be moniliform 
(i.e. with the joints like beads) : they have, also, the 
mentum (or chiu) more or less deeply notched (Fig. 5, 
