The geographical distribution of animals, with a study of the relations ...

;270 ZOOLOGICAL GEOGRAPHY. [pakt in.wader, a small plover {JEgialitis sandce-helence) which is peculiarto the island, but closely allied to African species. Numerousimported birds, such as canaries, Java sparrows, some Africanfinches, guinea-fowls, and partridges, are now wild. There areno native butterflies, but a few introduced species of almostworld-wide range. The only important remnant of the originalfauna consists of beetles and land shells. The beetles are themore numerous and have been critically examined and describedby Mr. T. V. Wollaston, whose researchesislands are so well known.in the other AtlanticColeoptera of St. Helena.— Omitting those beetles which getintroduced everywhere through man's agency, there are 59 speciesof Coleoptera known from St. Helena ;and even of these thereare a few widely distributed speciesthat may have been introducedby man. It will be well, therefore, to confine ourselvesalmost wholly to the species peculiar to the island, and, therefore,almost certainly forming part of the endemic or original fauna.Of these we find that 10 belong to genera which have a verywide range, and thus afford no indication of geographical affinity2 belong to genera which are characteristic of the Palamrcticfauna {Bembidium, Longitarsus) ;3 to African genera (Adoretus,Sciobius, Aspidomorpha) ; and two species of Calosoma are mostallied to African species. There are also 4 African species,which may be indigenous in St. Helena. The peculiar genera,7 in number, are, however, the most interesting. We have firstHaplothorax, a large beetle allied to Carabus and Calosoma, thoughof a peculiar type. This may be held to indicate a remotePaloearctic affinity.Melissius, one of the Dynastidse, is allied toSouth African forms. .Microxylobius, one of the Cossonides (asub-family of Curculionidas) is the most important genus, comprisingas it does 13 species. It is, according to Mr. Wollaston,an altogether peculiar type, most allied to Pentarthrurn,, a genusfound in St. Helena, Ascension, and the south of England, anditself very isolated. Nesiotes, another genus of Curculionidse,belongs to a small group, the allied genera forming which inhabitEurope, Madeira, and Australia. A third peculiar and isolatedgenus is Trachyphlwosoma. The Anthribidie are represented by