HIMALAYAS AND OF INDIA. hi 
them attached to warm countries, and sore, indeed, are seldom found but within the Torrid 
Zone. It is needless to state many genera from the Himalayas evincing an affinity to European 
types;* some few, however, are worth noticing, such as Broschus and true Carabus, Geotrupes and 
Pimelia: the two last have been declared by high authority never to be found in India. Regarding 
identity of Insects occurring in the Himalayas, as well as in Europe, there are several species of the 
following genera of Coleoptera, namely, Elater, Melolontha, Chrysomela, Cassida, and Coccinella, 
which I cannot help thinking are the same as those of England; particularly as the vegetation of the 
two countries greatly coincide, for in very many cases, genera, and in some instances the self-same species 
of plants have been recognized. Among the carnivorous Insects, I believe that Dermestes lardarius, 
and vulpinus, Corynetes violaceus, and rufipes, and some of the Staphilinide, are essentially the same in 
Europe and the Himalayas. Of Lepidoptera, I figure Papilio Machaon, because it is evidently the same 
as what we meet with in England; the same remark will apply to Vanessa Atalanta, and Cynthia 
Cardui. The French entomologists are inclined to regard the Insects of widely separated countries as 
distinct species; I wish to esteem them as varieties, and I cannot help thinking, that as identity of 
Plants has been satisfactorily proved by Dr. Royle, so also we may believe in the identity of Insects in 
regions widely removed from each other. At any rate, should these varieties eventually prove distinct 
(which may be ascertained, I think, in the Lepidoptera order, when we become better acquainted with 
the oval, larval, and chrysalidous stages), yet the differences will ever be so slight, that we cannot sepa- 
rate or distinguish them in the imago state with any degree of certainty. But whether they be accounted 
species, or only varieties, we see the grand object of their creation, in their fitness for performing certain 
functions which are assigned them; one of these is, to keep in check the luxuriance of vegetation and 
to restrain it within due limits; another may be, that these puny agents may fecundate the flowers, by 
carrying the fertilizing pollen from tree to tree, and thus be the means, in one case, of promoting wen 
tion, as in another they are the agents of its destruction. 
ENTOMOLOGICAL CHARACTER or INDIA. 
From the foregoing Analysis, I have no hesitation in asserting that the pervading character of Indian 
Entomology is uniformity. It is true that we meet with numerous genera, both of tropical and temperate 
climes, associated together; the former more abundant, the latter less frequent (as we might naturally 
expect) than in the Himayalas. There is, however, a greater intermingling of forms than at first sight 
would be readily imagined ; but when we take into our consideration, that many of the species resem- 
fo porprapiertegine pe feria lode a on es pentagon at a Page tee evation, » 
ttn ae Meena wap Se the East, we find many European’ epi tas oe 
to excite our astonishment. It will appear, then, that many species taken in n temperate and northern 
climes, are not confined to them, and that the range they enjoy is very cons eee ; 
over the Old World, but also to the New. As we advance from the Poles to the Equator, vegetation is 
more luxuriant, in proportion as heat increases, and the quantity of work assigned to Insect races is 
proportionately increased. Is it not natural to imagine that the functions performed by them in a colder 
climate, would in a warmer one require increased exertion and capabilities ? It does not follow, because 
we find new types of form in tropical countries, and new genera of superior bulk and power, and more 
abundant in individuals, that therefore they no _— the old ones, and atten 4 fi the ; 
duties 
* T mayhere add, that various Himalayan genera closely approximate Siberian forms, and that some of the species deseribed by 
Dr. Gebler from the Altaic chain of mountains, particularly some Chrysomelid, I believe to be indigenous in both regions. — 
