INTRODUCTION.

as far as may be possible tbe good from all (rejecting both what is superfluous andbad), is indeed a Gordian knot requiring a Solon to untie. And, whilst numerousportions have been subsequently taken in hand by others, and have here and therebeen modified (for better or worse), the general plan which Mr. Westwood hasselected 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. Iwould mention this, not because I have altogether followed in his wake,—havingdeparted from it in many (perhaps too many) instances, —but simply by reason ofthe fact that, having made his volume my text-book ab initio, most of my ideason the subject (and many even of the changes suggested) have arisen from a studyof its contents: and, although I have not chosen to consider myself as boundimplicitly to any particular author, yet I think it due to Mr. Westwood toaffirm that my method of arrangement has been in a very large measure mouldedout of his.

The 13 primary sections which I have made use of are those adopted by Mr.Westwood; nevertheless I have both transposed and inverted them, according asI have deemed it desirable (or where newly-discovered links rendered it necessary)to bring certain groups, formerly far asunder, into juxtaposition. Such has beenthe case with the Cissidce and Tomici, —a proceeding which, on account of theclose affinity of the latter with the Cossonides, rendered the inversion of the Ilhyn-cophora absolutely necessary. Then, the removal of the JBraclielytra (from thePentamerous departments) to the end,—a step which, after much reflection, Ihave thought it advantageous, even on its own account, to take,—has had thehappy effect of bringing Anthrenus (of the JDermestidce ) into direct contact withthe JByrrhi, with which it has so much in common; whilst I have ventured toemploy the Scydmcenidce (although not actually Brachelytrous) to effect a passagefrom Anthicus to the Pselaphi (which apparently however have no exponent inthe Madeira Islands), and from thence (through Falagria) into the Staphylmidce.The Trogositidce I have preferred to treat as a distinct family, and (for reasonsstated at page 154) as more akin to the Cucujidce than to the Nitidulidce, —withwhich it is now usually associated. The location of the Anisotomidce may perhapsrequire some apology; and I may add that I am not prepared to defend thesituation 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 willinglydisturb the position (near to the Silphidce) which it is generally supposed tooccupy: still, the difficulty has been felt (vid. p. 484) of disconnecting it from theClypeastres ; and since these latter are almost universally acknowledged as insepa-rable from the Pseudotrimera (an hypothesis however which I am by no meansinclined to accept as capable of positive demonstration, though I have tacitlyendorsed 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-