INTRODUCTION. XUl 



on this intricate question : and to any person who has a practical knowledge of the 

 localities themselves, I think that the following numbers (unequal as they are) 

 will not appear to be inconsistent with the opposite dimensions and aspects of the 

 various portions of the cluster to which they respectively refer. Thus, in Madeii-a 

 proper I have (up to the present period) ascertained 432 species to have occurred, 

 in Porto Santo 111, on the Dezerta Grande 57, on the Northern Dezerta (or Ilheo 

 Chao) 15, and on the Southern Dezerta (or Ilheo Bugio) 4. Or, if we choose to 

 regard the Dezertas as one, the group will separate itself into three natm'al divi- 

 sions ; and we shall have for Madeu-a proper 432, for the Dezertas 61, and for 

 Porto Santo 111. Of the 61 species which I have found on the Dezertas, 44 have 

 been detected in Madeira and 29 in Porto Santo. Tlie species which (so far as I 

 have been able to ascertain) are peculiar to Madeira proper are 340, to Porto 

 Santo 32, to the Dezerta Grande 6, to the Ilheo Chao 3, and to the Ilheo Bugio 0. 



The only insects of the existence of which I have been enabled to satisfy myself 

 for certain on ei-erij island are the Scarites ahhreviatus and the Laparocerus morio ; 

 nevertheless I am all but convinced that the Calatlms complanatus, Sarpalus 

 vivklus and the Hadriis cinerascens (if we consider the H. illqtus as its Porto 

 Santan analogue) are equally universal : whilst, at the same time, they may l^e 

 regarded, in conjunction with the Tarns lineatus, Dromlits ohscuroyiittatus, 

 OUsthopus Maderensis, Omias ventrosus, Helops JPluto and confertus, and the 

 Anthicus trlstis, as amongst the species which are the most abimdant indicidually 

 of all with which we are concerned. 



Taking a cursory view of the Coleoptera here described, the fauna may perhaps 

 be pronounced as having a greater afiinity with that of Sicily than of any other 

 country which has been hitherto projierly investigated. Apart from the large 

 number of our genera (and even sj^ecies) which are diffused over more or less of 

 the entu'e Mediterranean basin, this is especially evinced in some of the most cha- 

 racteristic forms, — such as Ajwtomiis, Xenostrongylus, Tarpliius, Cholovocera, JSolo- 

 p>aramecus, Bergimis, LUargus, Thorictus and Boromorphus. There is moreover, 

 strange though it may appear to be, some slight (though decided) collective assi- 

 milation with what we observe in the south-western extremity of oiu' own country 

 and of Ireland, — nearly all the species which are common to Madeira and the 

 British Isles being found in those particular regions ; whilst one j)oint of coin- 

 cidence at any rate, and of a very remarkable natm-e, has been fully discussed 

 {md. p. 320) under Mesites. Whether or not this partial parallelism may be 

 employed to further Professor E. Porbes's theory of the quondam approximation, 

 by means of a continuous land, of the Kerry and Gallician hills, and of a huge 

 miocene continent extending beyond the Azores, and including all these Atlantic 

 clusters within its embrace, I will not venture to suggest : nevertheless it is im- 

 possible to deny that, so far as the Madeu'as betoken, everything would go to 

 favour this grand and comprehensive idea. Partaking in the main of a Mediter- 

 ranean fauna, the northern tendency of which is in the evident direction of the 



