MODERN BIOLOGICAL INQUIRY. 289 



was disposed to regard as a separate genus, Ake])horus. This form is, 

 therefore, in a condition of evolution how, I know not our descend- 

 ants may. The Atlantic species are winged ; the Pacific ones, like a 

 large number of insects of that region, are without wings. 



Accompanying these are Coleoptera of other families, which liave 

 been less carefully studied, but I will not trespass upon your patience 

 by mentioning more than two. Bledius palUpennis {Staphyllnidm) is 

 found on salt marshes near New York, on the Southern sea-coast, and 

 in Kansas; Ammodonus fossor^ a wingless Tenebrionide, Trenton sea- 

 shore near New York, and valley of the Mississippi at St. Louis ; thus 

 nearly approximating Cicindela lepida in distribution. 



We can thus obtain by a careful observation of the localities of 

 insects, especially such as aifect sea-shore or marsh, and those which, 

 being deprived of their favorite surroundings, have shown, if I may 

 so express myself, a patriotic clinging to their native soil, most valu- 

 able indications in regard to the time at which their unmodified ances- 

 tors first appeared upon the earth. For it is obvious that no tendency 

 to change in different directions by " numerous successive slight 

 modifications " * would produce a uniform result in such distant locali- 

 ties, and under such varied conditions of life. Properly studied, these 

 indications are quite as certain as though we found the well-preserved 

 remains of these ancestors in the mud and sand strata upon which 

 they flitted or dug in quest of food. 



Other illustrations of survivals from indefinitely more remote times 

 I will also give you, from the Coleopterous fauna of our own country, 

 though passing time admonishes me to restrict their number. 



To make my remarks intelligible, I must begin by saying that 

 there are three great divisions of Coleoptera, which I will name in the 

 order of their complication of structural plan: 1. Rhynchophora; 2. 

 Heteromera ; 3. Ordinary or normal Coleoptera ; the last two being 

 more nearly allied to each other than either is to the first. I have in 

 other places exjjosed the characters of these divisions, and will not 

 detain you by repeating them. 



From paleontological evidence derived from other branches of 

 zoology, we have a right to suppose, if this classification be correct, 

 that these great types have been introduced upon the earth in the 

 order in which I have named them. 



Now, it is precisely in the first and second series that the most 

 anomalous instances of geographical distribution occur ; that is to 

 say, the same or nearly identical genera are represented by species in 

 very widely-separated regions, without occurring in intermediate or 

 contiguous regions. Thus there is a genus Emeax, founded by Mr. 

 Pascoe, upon an Austi-alian species, which, when I saw it, I recognized 

 as belonging to JNi/ctoporis, a California genus, established many 

 years before; and, in fact, barely specifically distinct from N.gaUata. 



> "Origia of Species," 1869, p. 227. 

 VOI-. VIII. 19 



