REVIEWS- 1, 9, 4 from foot, for p. 138-663, read p. 138-154. (Same.) On the Botany by Griesbach, p. 289, read Lower Animals, by 18 5 from foot, after plate, insert p. 191-200. 10 from foot, after glass, for comma, read a semicolon. 27 connected, read connecting. THE NATURAL HISTORY REVIEW. Reviews. UNTERSUCHUNGEN UEBER DIE FLUEGEL-typen der Coleopteren, von Prof. Dr. H. Burmeister. (Part I. Clavicornia, with a plate.) 4to. Halle. 1855. WINGS may be considered characteristic of insects among the Annulata, no less than of birds among the Vertebrata, although this character be neither strictly universal in the former, nor exclusively confined to the latter class. The earliest arrangement of the Annulata which has come down to usthat of Aristotle-is based upon these organs; and they have continued to hold either the first, or a nearly co-ordinate place, in most of the modern systems of Entomology, the differences in their number and texture chiefly being regarded in the characters of the orders. Frisch* was the first who looked for generic distinctions in the disposition of the horny veins which, acted on by muscles contained in the thorax, move the membrane, kept by them in a state of tension. Moses Harris next applied the principle to the classification of the Diptera, and a part of the Hymenoptera, which he illustrated by numerous and accurate figures.† After him, Jurine more fully and methodically elaborated the genera of Hymenoptera on like grounds, adding a scheme of nomenclature for the veins, the basis of that now in common use. The great significance of the characters thence derived is now universally admitted, as regards these two orders, which combine evidence, precision, simplicity, and variety in the venation. But in the remaining orders, where one or other of these conditions for the most part undergoes a degradation, the use of such a help for classification was more tardy, or remains yet incomplete. This has been the case more ⚫ Beschreibungen von all. Insekten u. s. w. Berlin. 1720. † Exposition of English Insects. London. 1776. Nouvelle Methode de classer les Hymenoptères, etc. Genève. 1807. VOL. III. B especially with the Coleoptera, inasmuch as the usually concealed position of their membranous underwings impeded the consideration of them in this point of view. Preyssler, indeed, early urged the utility of the veins for the classification of all the orders, and of the Coleoptera in particular, adducing specific examples from among the Scarabæi. Neither has this character been overlooked by Sturm or Guerin, in their figures illustrating the genera of that order. More lately, Matzek,† insisting on the same theme, has proposed a special nomenclature for the veins and areolets in the underwings of the Coleoptera; while Heer has investigated most particularly the variations in the manner of their folding, in relation to the different families. The tract which we have under review, however, is likely to contribute, more than any of those previous essays, to the general application of the principle among the Coleoptera, albeit restricted in its immediate scope to a single group. Burmeister, having sought in vain to find comprehensive characters, for the great groups of this order, in the antennæ, mouth, feet, and abdomen, was induced to turn his attention to the veining of the wings. The first fruits of this study appeared in an essay on the natural affinities of the Paussida,§ which family, upon this and other grounds, he referred to the neighbourhood of the Carabidae. So novel a suggestion naturally elicited some criticism, and the general views he had put forth on the value of the characters derived from the wings received a separate share of discussion. The objection, which had been anticipated and briefly repelled by Preyssler, arising out of the want of wings in many Coleoptera, was restated by Erichson in a form more precise, and with a fairer appreciation of its force and tendency. "There are," he observes, "two circumstances which render the venation of but secondary moment; 1st, that the membranous wings are sometimes wanting in individuals, sex, or species, in genera, or even whole sections and families of Coleoptera; 2nd, that the majority of minute forms, of whatever family, have the wings veinless. Still, the variations in the veining of the underwings of the Coleoptera deserve more attention than they have yet obtained, especially in relation to the different modes in which they are folded up under the elytra."|| This latter consideration, as we have seen, has been since very fully elucidated by Heer. Burmeister, however, will concede to this but a subordinate place, as at most a generic, sometimes *Illigers Magazin für Insekten-kunde. Bd. 2, Braunschweig. 1802. Necrophororum Monographiæ. Part I. Breslau. 1839. Entomologische Zeitung. Bd. 4. Stettin. 1843. § Guerin, Magazin de Zoologie. An. 1841. || Wiegmanns Archiv für Naturgeschichte. Bd. 2. 1842. |