In the pupal state, for all beetles undergo a complete metamorphosis, they are inactive, mummy-like creatures showing the outlines of the future beetle, with the wings, antennae, and legs closely folded down, and the whole enveloped in a thin membrane. Some form regular cocoons from the material among which they feed; others seal up at both ends the cavity in which they have been feeding before they pupate; but many do not even take this precaution. The classification of the Coleoptera has been undertaken by many entomologists. In Gemminger and Harold’s great Catalogue of the Coleoptera, seventy-five families were enumerated; Sharp has recently adopted eighty, but when it comes to the larger sub-divisions none of them agree. Westwood in his Classification has an alarming array of sections, tribes, stirps, and sub-families: Kirby gives fourteen sections in his Text Book; while Sharp simplifies the matter by forming six series, some of them on the old lines, but his third series is apparently more of a dumping ground than anything else for those that will not fit into the other five, for it includes such dissimilar families as the Staphylinidae, Buprestidae, Coccinellidae and many others. As Masters’ Catalogue of the Described Coleoptera of Australia is the list used by all Australian collectors, I shall follow his grouping of the families (originally based on that of Gemminger and Harold), defining the groups of each important or distinct family, though through want of space many of them can be only briefly noticed. There have been so many describers of Australian beetles, that their names alone would take some enumerating; so that I propose to omit them here and notice them later on when dealing with the families upon which they have worked. Australia is rich in large and handsome specimens, which attracted the attention of the colonists at a very early date in the history of the country, and quite a number of collections were made and the specimens forwarded to England. Most of the exploring expeditions that traversed the back country had a collector of some sort on their staff, and it was usually beetles that formed the bulk of the entomological specimens obtained. Again the Scientific Exploring Ships, fitted out by our own and foreign countries, that visited the different ports, collected many zoological specimens, so that many of our larger beetles were known and described many years ago. Over 7,200 are listed in Masters’ Catalogue, and since its publication some thousands have been added to our list. Family 1. Tiger Beetles. CICINDELIDAE.