143 



proper to Madagascar ; of the Sloths, Armadillos, Tree 

 Porcupines, and of Alligators, and of the Platyrrhini 

 (amongst the Monkeys), to South America; and of the 

 Ourangs to the islands of the Indian Archipelago. 



And so it is with the Insecta; many of the larger 

 groups of which (as Amycterus and Paropsis, in Australia; 

 Pachyrhynchus and Apocyrtus, in the Philippine Islands ; 

 Hipporhinus, Monochelus, Diclielus, and Moluris, in 

 Southern Africa ; Macronota, in Java ; and Naupactus, 

 Hypsonotus, Centrinus, Platyomus, and Cyrtonota, in 

 South America) are confined to countries of propor- 

 tionate magnitude, whilst the smaller ones are more com- 

 monly (as it were) shaped out for special provinces or re- 

 gions, according as local circumstances may require pri- 

 mary adaptations to harmonize with them. Thus, whilst we 

 frequently find an extensive genus diffused over the greater 

 portion of the known world, we perceive that even its 

 structural characteristics are not uniform throughout, but 

 afford fixed geographical modifications (not, in this case, 

 however, the effect of development), which have often, 

 in their turn, obtained the name of ' genera/ and have 

 been described as such. Whether genera, however, or 

 not, they are undeniably small topographical assemblages, 

 satellites around their central types; and they may 

 therefore be safely regarded as genera, if we choose to 

 view them in that light. Of such a nature I have 

 already pointed out* is Saprinus, as compared with 

 Hister ; Atlantis with Laparocerus ; and Oxyomus with 



* Insecta Maderensia, p. 214. 



