CHAP. XV THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 319 



less than 352 species and 99 of the genera appear to be 

 quite peculiar to the archipelago. Sixty of these S23ecies 

 are Carabida3, forty-two are Stapliylinidse, forty are 

 NitidulidfB, twenty are Ptinidse, twenty are Ciodidse, thirty 

 are Aglycyderidae, forty-five are Curculionida3, and fourteen 

 are Cerambycidse, the remainder being distributed among 

 twenty-two other families. Many important families, such 

 as Gicindelidse, Scaraboeidse, Buprestida^, and the whole of 

 the enormous series of the Phytophaga are either entirely 

 absent or are only represented by a few introduced species. 

 In the eight families enumerated above most of the species 

 belong to peculiar genera which usually contain numerous 

 distinct species ; and we may therefore consider these to re- 

 13resent the descendants of the most ancient immigrants into 

 the islands. 



Two important characteristics of the Coleopterous fauna 

 are, the small size of the species, and the great scarcity of 

 individuals. Dr. Sharp, who has described many of them,^ 

 says they are " mostly small or very minute insects," and 

 that " there are few — probably it would be correct to say 

 absolutely none — that would strike an ordinary observer as 

 being beautiful." Mr. Blackburn says that it was not an 

 uncommon thing for him to pass a morning on the 

 mountains and to return home with perhaps two or three 

 specimens, having seen literally nothing else except the 

 few species that are generally abundant. He states that 

 he " has frequently spent an hour sweeping flower-covered 

 herbao^e, or beating branches of trees over an inverted 

 white umbrella without seeing the sign of a beetle of any 

 kind." To those Avho have collected in any tro23ical or 

 even temperate country on or near a continent, this 

 poverty of insect life must seem almost incredible ; and it 

 affords us a striking proof of how erroneous are those now 

 almost obsolete views which imputed the abundance, 

 variety, size, and colour of insects to the warmth and sun- 

 light and luxuriant vegetation of the tropics. The facts 

 become quite intelligible, however, if we consider that only 



^ " Memoirs on the Coleoptera of tlie Hawaiian Islands." By the Rev. T. 

 Blackburn, B.A., and Dr. D. Sharp. ScienUfic Transactions of the Royal 

 Dublin Society. Vol. III. Series II, 1885. 



