INTRODUCTION. 
7 
as far as may be possible the good from all (rejecting both what is superfluous and 
bad), is indeed a Gordian knot requiring a Solon to untie. And, whilst numerous 
portions have been subsequently taken in hand by others, and have here and there 
been modified (for better or worse), the general plan which Mr. Westwood has 
selected does still seem to offer (when contemplated in the mass) the fewest objec¬ 
tions, so far as I am able to judge, of any which has been hitherto proposed. I 
would mention this, not because I have altogether followed in his wake,—having 
departed from it in many (perhaps too many) instances, —but simply by reason of 
the fact that, having made his volume my text-book ab initio, most of my ideas 
on the subject (and many even of the changes suggested) have arisen from a study 
of its contents: and, although I have not chosen to consider myself as bound 
implicitly to any particular author, yet I think it due to Mr. Westwood to 
affirm that my method of arrangement has been in a very large measure moulded 
out of his. 
Tlie 13 primary sections which I have made use of are those adopted by Mr. 
Westwood; nevertheless I have both transposed and inverted them, according as 
I have deemed it desirable (or where newly-discovered links rendered it necessary) 
to bring certain groups, formerly far asunder, into juxtaposition. Such has been 
the case with the Cissidce and Tomici, —a proceeding which, on account of the 
close affinity of the latter with the Cossonides, rendered the inversion of the Hhyn- 
cophora absolutely necessary. Then, the removal of the Brachelytra (from the 
Pentamerous departments) to the end,—a step which, after much reflection, I 
have thought it advantageous, even on its own account, to take,—has had the 
happy effect of bringing Antlirenus (of the Dermestidce) into direct contact with 
the Byrrhi , with which it has so much in common; whilst I have ventured to 
employ the Scydmcenidce (although not actually Brachelytrous) to effect a passage 
from Antliicus to the Pselaphi (which apparently however have no exponent in 
the Madeira Islands), and from thence (through Falagria) into the Staphylinidce. 
The Troyositidee I have preferred to treat as a distinct family, and (for reasons 
stated at page 154) as more akin to the Cucujidce than to the Nitidulidce, —with 
which it is now usually associated. The location of the Anisotomidee may perhaps 
require some apology; and I may add that I am not prepared to defend the 
situation which I have assigned to it as of necessity the most natural one. I do, 
rather, in fact regard it as in reality Necrophagous, and would not willingly 
disturb the position (near to the Silphidcc) which it is generally supposed to 
occupy: still, the difficulty has been felt (vid. p. 484) of disconnecting it from the 
Clypeastres ; and since these latter are almost universally acknowledged as insepa¬ 
rable from the PseudotHmera (an hypothesis however which I am by no means 
inclined to accept as capable of positive demonstration, though I have tacitly 
endorsed it in the present volume), I have to a certain degree been coerced, con¬ 
trary to my inclinations, in regulating its site. * 
It may perhaps be objected that I have sometimes been over-minute in de- 
