254 ON THE AUSTRALIAN CLIVINIDES, 



when they hibernate, hidden in the earth, often away from the 

 immediate proximity of water. During floods they may be taken 

 plentifully in the debris drifted along by the swollen streams. 

 Owing to their habits it is evident that their dispersion may be 

 aided by streams, and there seem no reasons, except those of 

 climate and food-supply, why a species having once gained a 

 footing on any watershed should not spread along all the streams 

 of such watershed. 



With the insufficient data at my command no conclusions or 

 inferences of any practical worth in regard to the distribution of 

 the Australian species of Climna can be attempted; but the 

 following suggestions may be offered :—(l) The sameness in 

 climate will have permitted a wide range for species from east to 

 west. (2) The number of different species may be expected to be 

 greater on the coastal side of the mountain ranges owing to the 

 greater number of separate river systems. (3) The large area 

 included in the watershed of each of the two great river systems 

 which collect the waters flowing from the inland slojDes of the 

 dividing ranges of Eastern Australia, from the boundary between 

 The Northern Territory of South Australia and Queensland to 

 Western Victoria, viz., the Barcoo watershed and the Murray 

 watershed, will have been conducive to a wide range for the 

 species found in the areas of these river systems. There certainly 

 seems to have been a migration from tropical Queensland towards 

 South Australia by way of the Barcoo watershed, and thence 

 into Victoria and New South Wales by way of the Murray and 

 its tributaries; this is evidenced by the range of C. procera, G. 

 quadralifrons, and C. felix; while C. aastralasim, C. basalts, G. 

 sellata, C. angtisLala and C. adehiidce are species that evidently 

 have had their distribution helped by the Murray river-system. 



In conclusion, attention may be drawn to the great scarcity of 

 the Clivlnides in New Zealand (only two species) in comparison 

 with their great development in tropical Queensland as offering 

 sjme evidence against an actual land connection in former 

 geological times between New Zealand and North Eastern 

 Australia. 



