and
a few allied families of Sharp's _Polymorpha_), and the _Carabidiformia_
(_Adephaga_). Lameere's classification is founded on the number of
abdominal sterna, the nervuration of the wings, the number of malpighian
tubules (whether four or six) and other structural characters.
Preferable to Lameere's system, because founded on a wider range of
adult characters and taking the larval stages into account, is that of
H. J. Kolbe (1901), who recognizes three sub-orders: (i.) the
_Adephaga_; (ii.) the _Heterophaga_, including the _Staphylinoidea_, the
_Actinorhabda_ (_Lamellicornia_), the _Heterorhabda_ (most of Sharp's
_Polymorpha_), and the _Anchistopoda_ (the _Phytophaga_, with the
ladybirds and some allied families which Sharp places among the
_Polymorpha_); (iii.) the _Rhynchophora_.

Students of the Coleoptera have failed to agree not only on a system of
classification, but on the relative specialization of some of the groups
which they all recognize as natural. Lameere, for example, considers
some of his _Cantharidiformia_ as the most primitive Coleoptera. J. L.
Leconte and G. H. Horn placed the _Rhynchophora_ (weevils) in a group
distinct from all other beetles, on account of their supposed primitive
nature. Kolbe, on the other hand, insists that the weevils are the most
modified of all beetles, being highly specialized as regards their adult
structure, and developing from legless maggots exceedingly different
from the adult; he regards the Adephaga, with their active armoured
larvae with two foot-claws, as the most primitive group of beetles, and
there can be little doubt that the likeness between larvae and adult may
safely be accepted as a primitive character among insects. In the
Coleoptera we have to do with an ancient yet dominant order, in which
there is hardly a family that does not show specialization in some point
of structure or life-history. Hence it is impossible to form a
satisfactory linear series.

In the classification adopted in this article, the attempt has been made
to combine the best points in old and recent schemes, and to avoid the
inconvenience of a large heterogeneous group including the vast majority
of the families.

ADEPHAGA.--This tribe includes beetles of carnivorous habit with five
segments on every foot, simple thread-like feelers with none of the
segments enlarged to form club or pectination, and the outer lobs
(galea) of the first maxilla usually two-segmented and palp