136 INSECTS OF THE FLY RIVER, NEW GUINEA, "COLEOPTERA " 



THE INSECTS OF THE FLY RIVER, NEW GUINEA, 



" COLEOPTERA." 



By William Macleay, F.L.S., &c. 



All the Coleoptera collected during the Australian Geographical 

 Society's Expedition to the Fly River, New Guinea, during the 

 winter months of last year, have been placed in my hands for 

 identification. 



The collection is, for New Guinea, a large one, and evidences 

 great zeal and industry on the part of Mr. Froggatt the collector. 

 It numbers in all 295 species and 914 specimens. 



In any part of Australia, such a collection would be looked 

 upon as small for several months' work, but in New Guinea it is 

 otherwise ; my own experience, and that of all others who have 

 collected in New Guinea, testify to the wonderfully limited 

 Coleopterous Fauna of the Island. 



Taken as a whole, the present collection bears out fully the 

 observations, as to the absence of certain groups and the comparative 

 numbers of others, made by me in 1875 (Proc. Linn. Soc, N. S. 

 Wales, Vol. 1, p. 36), and by Mr. Achille Raffray in 1878. 

 (Bull. Ent. Soc. Fr., p. 225.) 



Thus of 15 species of the Garabidce not more than two are true 

 ground beetles. The Staphylinidce are probably the only ground 

 beetles which are comparatively numerous. On the other hand the 

 lignivorous beetles are numerous in certain tribes, but not so in 

 others, for instance the Buprestidce though of large size and 

 brilliancy, are few in number, the same may be said of the 



