vi INTRODUCTION. 
them, the Othniide and the Xylophilid, contain as yet no described species from the 
South American continent, but both are certainly represented there. The Aigialitide, 
Cephaloide, Pyrochroide, and Stylopide, so far as at present known, are absent from 
the Central American fauna: the first two of these families contain but a single 
species each, and are both confined to Boreal America. The Pyrochroide are mostly 
restricted to the temperate or boreal regions of the Northern hemisphere ; four genera 
are known as occurring in North America, one of which, /schalia, may, perhaps, be 
found eventually in Northern Mexico. The Stylopide, parasitic upon Hymenoptera 
and Homoptera, are very widely distributed, and the family can scarcely be unre- 
presented within our limits; these insects, however, are everywhere very rare, and 
seldom met with by ordinary collectors. 
The total number of species of Heteromera here enumerated from Mexico and 
Central America is 1776, belonging to 261 genera; 1295 species and 92 genera 
are described as new. In Gemminger and Harold’s ‘ Catalogue’ (1870) 6827 species 
are given for the whole world, and since that time nearly as many more have been 
described, so that at the present time Mexico and Central America furnish about 13 
per cent. of the named species of the whole world. 
The following analysis shows the number of genera and species in each of the 
fourteen families; and the Table (pp. vii-xvi) gives the geographical distribution of 
the genera, with the number of species of each genus. The generic names printed 
in “clarendon type” are new; those placed within brackets belong to genera doubt- 
fully found in the Central-American Fauna. The Republics of Honduras and Salvador 
are omitted from the “ Table,” as no material has come to hand from those places. 
er Total number | Total number | New specie 
Families. of species. of genera, described. piss: 
Tenebrionids ............ eee eee - 870 145 694 49 
Cistelidee .... cee cece ee ee ees 158 24 150 15 
Othniide ..... eee eee eee 6 1 5 — 
Nilionid®..... 0... eee eee eee eee 4 1 3 — 
Monommid® ..........0c cece eeee 12 2 7 1 
Lagriid®@ 1.0... cece ee cece eee 107 9 97 6 
Melandryide ...............0.84. 45 20 40 9 
Pythidee ..... cece eee ee 7 5 6 3 
(idemeride ........... 0.2 eee eee 90 12 84 5 
Xylophilide..... cee ee ee ee eee 45 2 44 1 
Anthicide .......... 0c eee 93 8 69 — 
Mordellide .......... 0. cc eee eee 158 12 147 3 
Rhipidophoride .................. 21 3 11 — 
Meloidzee 1... 0... ce ee eee eee eee 160 17 388 pan 
1776 261 1295 92 
