xiv INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 
Such are a few of the general peculiarities which are at once appa- 
rent, on glancing over our Catalogue. It may be interesting to state 
(which however will be gathered from the subjoined list) that the 
entire number of species which have been as yet detected in Madeira 
proper is 515, in Porto Santo 162, on the Dezerta Grande 79, on the 
Bugio 32, and on the [heo Chao 22. Or, regarding the three De- 
zertas as one, which we should manifestly do in all our generaliza- 
tions on the subject (for, whatever may be the amount of evidence 
either in favour of or against the existence of an ancient Atlantic 
region causing all the present islands to be parts of a continuous 
land, there can be no question whatsoever that the Dezertas at any 
rate were connected inter se), we have: for Madeira 515, for the 
Dezertas, 89, and for Porto Santo 162. 
Of these 515 Madeiran species, 377 have not yet been observed on 
any of the other detachments of the Group ; of the 162 Porto-Santan 
ones, 41 are apparently confined (so far as the Madeiras are concerned) 
to that island ; and of the 89 which I have observed on the Dezertas, 
11 do not (it would seem) exist elsewhere. 
Regarding Madeira proper as the central mass (which it is), it will 
be interesting to gather, that of the 89 species which have been found 
on the Dezertas, 68 have been discovered also in Madeira, and 51 in 
Porto Santo; a circumstance which would clearly indicate (consider- 
ing how much further those rocks are from the latter than from the 
former, and how immensely more extensive the fauna of the larger 
island is than of the smaller one), that the Dezertas have a closer 
months each; I may add, that neither the careful observations of Mr. Bewicke 
(who has been so eminently successful in his additions to the fauna), nor the 
immense material, of at least 20,000 specimens, which has been lately placed in 
my hands by Mr. Mason; nor yet the continued operations of the various other 
workers who have been (and still are) ransacking the vicinity of Funchal, have 
succeeded in bringing to light any of these (for the most part) common European 
forms. May we not reasonably conclude, therefore, that the greater number of 
them, if not all, were mere accidental importations from other countries ; and 
that they have not even so much as naturalized themselves in the Madeiras ? 
For my own part, I think that we may safely do so ; and I am further confirmed 
in this, from the actual information which was lately communicated to me by 
Mr. Bewicke,—to the e‘fect that two or three species, at any rate, were taken, 
many years ago, from amongst foreign timber (as he had ascertained from 
Mr. Temple) in a yard near the Funchal beach, and were given to Dr. Heineken; 
and that another was captured on the roof of the Cathedral, which is situated 
immediately behind the Custom-House. The names of these 12 insects are as 
follows: Gyrinus natator, L.; Trogosita serrata, Woll.; Cholovocera Ma- 
dere, Westw.; Attagenus megatoma, F.; Trox scaber, L.; Chasmatopterus 
nigrocinctus, Woll.; Phleophagus suleipennis, Woll. ; Clytus Arietis, L. ; Orio- 
eeris Asparagi, L.; Cassida nebulosa, L.; Gastrophysa Polygoni, L.; and Coc- 
einella 14-pustulata, Li.: all of which, if we except Cholovocera (which is not, 
perhaps, likely to be introduced), are species which might easily have been, from 
various circumstances, accidentally imported. 
