NOTES ON THE AMARiE. 
245 
Sp. Amara injima^ Stephens. 
Spt. — ’A. infima^ Steph. Mand. i. 135; Carabus infimus^ Dhfts.. 
Sp, Char, —Above glossy black; hd. smooth; thx. with its lateral margins 
rounded, the disk tranversely convex; on each side at the base are two 
punctate fovese, the inner oblong, and deepest; the lateral margin, and 
sometimes the hinder, tinged with ferruginous; elyt. as in A. tibialis; 
body beneath glossy black; the legs stout, rusty red, the thighs occasionally 
dusky; ant. dull ferruginous, with the three basal joints pale testaceous. 
Length 2—2^ lines. 
Apparently scarce; taken near London, and in Norfolk.”— Stephens. 
As circumstances have prevented my attending to an arrangement of the 
species of Amara, whilst writing this and my preceding paper, I beg to lay before 
the reader a classification of them. No doubt it will be branded by many as 
artijicicd. In some measure it is so; in most cases, however, the species are 
arranged according to their natural affinities; and if it answers no other good 
end, I think it not improbable that it will assist the student in his investigation 
of the species belonging to this difficult group—-thus answering one of the 
primary objects of systematic Entomologyi 
Order, Coleopfera, Linn. 
Tribe, Carabacea, Ryl.* (Adephaga, Clairv.) 
Family, Harpalidce, Macleay. 
Genus, Amara, Bonel. 
Destitute of fovea on the thorax. 
1. atroccETulea, Stu. ; 2. laticollis, Steph. 
* * With an obsolete fovea, on each side, at the base of the thorax, 
3. rustica, Ryl. ; familiar is, Creut. 
* ^ With a linear impression, on each side, at the base of the thorax. 
5. ovata, Steph. ; fi. trimalu, Siu.; 7. nitida, Stu. ; 8. cursor, Stu. 
SwAiNsoN proposes es as a termination to distinguish tribes, as families are known by id(B, 
and sub-families by incB. Es, as a distinctive termination, is obviously objectionable: thus we 
have, Insessores, Dentirostres, Anabates, Ectopistes, and Scarabseoides—all ending in es, and yet 
each of a different rank : the first being an order, the second a tribe, the third a genus, the fourth 
a sub-genus, and the fifth a specific (or trivial) appellation. Of what use can such a mock-distinc¬ 
tion as this be, either to the student or professed naturalist ? This Nomenclature may, however, 
be tolerated in a classification of birds, in which there are comparatively but few tribes—but in 
Entomology the case is quite the reverse, and therefore some more fit and useful termination 
ought to be substituted. 1 would propose acea, and that the tribes take their appellations from 
the typical families, as the latter do from genera; thus we should have, Carabacca, PapiIion«cea, 
Vhaleenacea, &c, .[We consider the plan worthy of general adoption.—En.] 
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