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viii INTRODUCTION. 



in the following pages, about 90 only are known as yet to occur north of the Mexican 

 boundary and about 150 in South America, thus leaving nearly 1930 species peculiar 

 to our region. This number will of course be very greatly reduced when the northern 

 part of South America is more thorougly explored, and a comparison can be made 

 of the types of some of the Central- American species with those of North America. 

 In Henshaw's " List of the Coleoptera of America north of Mexico" (1885), and 

 its Supplement (1887), 553 species of the eleven families of Phytophaga dealt with, 

 here are enumerated, about one fourth of the total number of the Central- American 

 forms. It will thus be seen that Central America has an exceedingly rich and peculiar 

 Phytophagous fauna, the affinities of which are much greater with South America than 

 with America north of Mexico. 



My heartiest thanks are due to the Editors for their liberal assistance in furnishing 

 me with all necessary material, books, &c. to complete this work, which has occupied 

 a large part of my leisure time during the past twelve years. 



M.J. 



May 1892. 



