1902. Reviews. 225 



and they illustrate the frequent restriction of southern species in Ire- 

 land to the south and west of the country. Perhaps the most interesting 

 species in the whole list is the tiny moth Zellen'a phillyrella. Mill. — a 

 south-eastern European insect, which has lately been discovered at 

 Renvyle, Connemara, but is unknown elsewhere in the British Isles. 

 The interest of the Beetle list certainly centres around the shores of 

 Lough Neagh. Here Haliday long ago discovered Pelophila borealis and 

 Dyschiritis obscur;is fthe latter is still unknown elsewhere in our islands) ; 

 and here Messrs. Johnson and R. Patterson have captured species oi Bevi- 

 bidiuin and Stcnus, identified respectively in the list before us as B. argen- 

 ieoluiii, Ahr., and S. palposus, Zett., both additions to the Britannic fauna. 



Distributional studies in Ireland have received so strong an incentive 

 from Dr. Scharff's " History of the European Fauna," that it is necessar}' 

 to consider the bearing of these two insect lists on his views. Messrs. 

 Johnson and Halbert refer, in their introduction, to the distributional 

 groups suggested by Dr. SchariF, and feel able to place many of the Irish 

 beetles definitely in one or other of these groups. Briefly summarising 

 the result, we may say that the Northern and Alpine faunas are spe- 

 cially characteristic of Ulster, Connaught, and Munster. The Southern 

 fauna (Oriental of Scharff), is in Ireland partly restricted to the east 

 coast (Waterford to Antrim), and partly to the south and west ; while 

 the Lusitanian fauna is, among the beetles, represented chiefly by 

 shore-haunting species, some occurring chiefly in the south-west, others 

 in the south-east of Ireland. The authors of our beetle-list give us 

 therefore the facts, admirably arranged for study, and leave us to draw 

 our own deductions. As to the pre-or post-glacial age of the fauna, 

 or any section of it, they are discreetly silent. 



But Mr. Kane, in the introduction to his list, discusses the origin of 

 the Irish fauna at considerable length, with especial reference to the 

 influence of the Ice-age. His knowledge of the general natural 

 history of Ireland must command respectful attention for his 

 opinions, which are in all respects antagonistic to Dr. Scharft's, 

 as he believes in the total extinction of the pre-glacial fauna, 

 and the immigration subsequent to the Ice-age of all the species 

 now inhabiting the country. We hope that students of the sub- 

 ject, who read Mr. Kane's introduction, will not be content without 

 a first-hand reference to Dr. Scharff's writings. The latter naturalist 

 would, we believe, strongly demur to the statement that the Eastern 

 (" Siberian") animals " were driven south from Siberia by the increase 

 of the northern ice-cap," and he takes the greatest pains to impress upon 

 his readers that the Irish Stoat and Reindeer do not belong (as Mr. Kane 

 suggests) to this Eastern, but to the older Northern fauna. Mr. Kane's 

 attempt to minimise the differences between the Irish and British faunas 

 by stating that " the Common Hare must once have existed here [in 

 Ireland], being found in the Isle of Man, which is strictly Hibernian as 

 regards its fauna," can hardly be taken seriously. In spite of the late 

 Professor Carvill Lewis's researches, Mr. Kane carries the general glacia- 

 ticn of Ireland to the extreme south, and he does not consider that there 



