COLEOPTERA OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. 6 



It were desirable for many reasons that the scope of 

 the present work be enlarged to cover the fauna of the 

 entire State. 1 do not, however, at present feel suffi- 

 ciently familiar with the northern fauna to warrant so 

 great an undertaking. Indeed, I have many times been 

 tempted to indefinitely postpone the present paper, 

 because of the very meager knowledge which we possess 

 of the great majority of even the commoner species of our 

 district. With a view to completeness, however, and in 

 order to increase the usefulness of the present list, I 

 have in the " Notes " added at the end of each genus 

 the names — nearly always with localities, but usually 

 without further comment — of all other species known 

 to have occurred within the State. It is not unlikely 

 that a certain number of these, recorded by the older 

 writers simply from "California," may have been 

 found within the limits of Southern California; but I 

 have very rarely ventured to include a name in the list 

 without definite knowledge of its occurrence within the 

 limits of the territory here treated. 



Briefly described, the term Southern California, as 

 here used, includes that part of the State lying to the 

 south and east of a line drawn from Point Conception 

 eastward along the Santa Inez Mountains, then curving 

 to the north and east around the southern end of the 

 San Joaquin Valley, and along the desert slopes of the 

 Sierra Nevada Mountains through Kern and Inyo 

 counties, to the Nevada state line. The region thus 

 defined is by no means a distinct zoological district, but 

 its northern boundary line is as nearly an interfaunal 

 one as it is possible to draw across the State. Its area is 

 approximately one-third that of the entire State, and 

 includes San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino, Orange, 

 Los Angeles, and Ventura counties; the southern part 



