INSECTA SAUNDERSIANA. 
COLEOPTERA. 
Fam. CUECULIONIDES. 
PART I. 
Div. BRUCHID^, Sell. 
The Bruchidae, in respect to the various peculiar characters which 
distinguish them from the true Curculionidae and other aberrant groups 
of Rhynchophora, as well as from their habits and food, require to be ele¬ 
vated to a parallel rant with that division ; for few other groups in the 
Coleoptera have such constant and important characteristics. They are ex¬ 
tremely numerous in species; and if, in addition to the 300 species (at 
least) already described, we take into consideration the 150 new species in 
my cabinet, and a still larger number which I have seen in many collec¬ 
tions, as well as all those in the numerous museums unknown to me, we 
may, without exaggeration, conjecture that their number exceeds 1000, 
without including the large number not yet detected. They indeed form 
one of the most natural groups in the Order Coleoptera, and they require, 
from their great number, to be still further subdivided, especially in the 
genus Bruchus, as restricted by Schonherr. A rather natural group of 
species, having the body very thick and the pygidium perpendicular ( Br . 
Pescaprce , Coryphee , &c.), is certainly wrongly placed amidst the ordinary 
flattened species, having the pygidium oblique, and should, on the other 
hand, be placed next to the Pachymeri, to which they should link the true 
