QH i 
e 
if 
H O19 
V- | 
og 
INTRODUCTION. 
THE volume which these lines preface comprises nine families of Coleoptera, and registers 
as inhabiting Central America 1790 determined species belonging to them, in addition 
to a few left unnamed for want of sufficient material; of the total number, 1470 are 
described as new, and 103 new genera are characterized. 
The Haliplide (the first of the nine families) is a small assemblage of three or four 
genera, closely allied to the Carabide, but aquatic in habits, and presenting no special 
interest in a faunistic point of view ; we have, indeed, only six species belonging to it. 
The Dytiscide are a much larger family, and we record 168 Central-American species ; 
this may be roughly estimated as about one tenth of the total species known from all 
parts of the world; they are all aquatic. Our Gyrinide amount to 20 species; the 
number recorded in M. Regimbart’s recent monograph of the family being 266 for the 
whole world. 
The Hydrophilide have at present 141 Central-American species, the total number of 
described species of the family being probably under 1000. 
The next four families are all of small extent, and have respectively the following 
number of species :—Heteroceride 9, Parnide 39, Georisside 1, Cyathoceride 1. The 
Parnide inhabit, as a rule, small streams; the thirty-nine species of our region comprise 
no less than seven new genera, and are specially interesting, as giving, for the first time, 
fair grounds for the belief that the tropical regions of the world possess numerous 
representatives of this family. 
The family Cyathoceride, consisting of a single species, is, so far as at present known, 
peculiar to our region, but will probably be found to inhabit South America also. 
