COLEOPTEROUS FAMILY PAUSSlD.i:. 
5 
to Dr, Burnieister to be of greater importance than I felt and still 
feel disposed to accord to it, since in a very philosophical memoir 
published by him in Guerin s Magasin de Zoologie, 1841, he has 
endeavoured to prove that the Paussidse are nearly related to 
the Carabidse, and especially to the Ozsenee, considering them as 
a group annectent to the Carabidse, in the same manner as the 
Gyrinidse are attached to the Dyticidte. 
My observations on the grounds on which Dr. Burmeister has 
deduced this relationship will be given in treating on the genera 
Paussus and Platyrhopalus, an examination of which led Dr. 
Burmeister to adopt these views. 
The following is a sijnoptical table of the genera belonging to tlio 
family:— 
Antenn® quasi 10-:irticulatjB. 1. Ceraptcrtis^ 
Antemire quasi G-articulatae 
Piotborax Iruncato-cordatus . .... 2. Ccraioderusj Westw. 
Prothorax transversus angulis anticis rotnndatis; 
posticis valdc cmarginatis . . . . . 3. Lebiodents, Wkstw. 
Piotliorax angulis anticis valde produciis . . 4. Pentaplatarthrus, V>"estiv. 
Antenn® quasi bi-articulat®. 
Caput in prothoraceni inunersuTn : ocellis 2 . .5. IlylotoruSt Dalm. 
Caput in prothoracem baud immersum, collo dislincto, 
ocellis nullis. 
Palpi labiales articulis scqualibiis . . . 6. Platyrhopalus^ AVestw. 
Palpi labiales articulo ultimo elongate . . 7. Linn, 
The A^arious relations existing amongst the species of these 
different genera, do not appear to me to allow of their arrangement 
either in a linear or circular series in our present limited knowledge 
of the family. Mr. MacLeay, adopting a series of relations pointed 
out by me in the Linnsean Transactions, proposed to arrange them 
in a circle by commencing with the Paussi, thence passing to 
Platyrhopalus, P. Mellii leading to Cerapterus latipes, Cerapterus 
MacLeaii to Pentaplatarthinis, by which last he returns to the 
Paussi with a bipartite prothorax. Considering the discovery of a 
circular arrangement of the species of a group to be the essential 
proof of its being natural, it follows that all other genera which 
appear to belong to the family must be rejected, “ since, if inserted 
in the above circular series, they appear to interrupt it."” I con¬ 
sider it however unquestionable that Ceratoderus, Lebioderus, and 
Hylotorus, are as truly Paussideous as Cerapterus or Pentaplatar- 
thrus, and to be groups as high in the importance of their charac¬ 
ters as either of those genera which Mr. MacLeay himself admits. 
I shall accordingly describe the genera-in the order given in the 
above table, without wishing it to be considered as their natural 
