ILLUSTRATIVE OF NATURAL. SELECTION. 195 



Remarkable Peculiarities of the Island of Celebes. 



If we now pass to the next island (Celebes), sepa- 

 rated from those last mentioned by a strait not wider 

 than that which divides them from each other, we 

 have a striking contrast; for with a total number 

 of species less than either Borneo or Java, no fewer 

 than eighteen are absolutely restricted to it. Further 

 east, the large islands of Ceram and New Guinea have 

 only three species peculiar to each, and Timor has 

 five. We shall have to look, not to single islands, 

 but to whole groups, in order to obtain an amount 

 of individuality comparable with that of Celebes. For 

 example, the extensive group comprising the large 

 islands of Java, Borneo, and Sumatra, with the penin- 

 sula of Malacca, possessing altogether 48 species, has 

 about 24, or just half, peculiar to it; the numerous- 

 group of the Philippines possess 22 species, of which 

 17 are peculiar; the seven chief islands of the Moluccas 

 have 27, of which 12 are peculiar ; and the whole 

 of the Papuan Islands, with an equal number of species, 

 have 17 peculiar. Comparable with the most isolated 

 of these groups is Celebes, with its 24 species, of 

 which the large proportion of 18 are peculiar. We 

 see, therefore, that the opinion I have elsewhere ex- 

 pressed, of the high degree of isolation and the remark- 

 able distinctive features of this interesting island, is 

 fully borne out by the examination of this conspi- 

 cuous family of insects. A single straggling island 

 with a few small satellites, it is zoologically of equal 



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