264 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



this system " an individual, by a simple process of discontinuous 

 variation — such as there is reason for believing actually occurs — 

 may ipso facto pass from the genus of its parents to another. It 

 follows that the contemporary members of one generation may 

 possibly belong to two different genera, though having the same 

 specific parentage. . . . These dislocations of taxonomy — if they 

 occur at all — occur but rarely." 



" The precinctive Hawaiian Carabidous fauna may ... be 

 considered to consist of 209 species, belonging entirely to three 

 groups " (Anchomenides, Pterostichides, and Bembidiides). " The 

 Carabidous fauna of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and 

 Ireland consists of about 315 species, belonging to 25 groups. 

 The remarkable taxonomic concentration of the Hawaiian fauna 

 is not, however, adequately expressed by this brief statement, 

 because the Pterostichides form generally one of the largest and 

 most varied of all the groups of Carabidse in all parts of the 

 world ; but in the Hawaiian fauna it includes 78 species, all of 

 which would be placed in a single genus, Cyclothorax, were it 

 not that I have separated them therefrom, and divided them into 

 four genera on certain of the degradational characters that form 

 so marked a feature of the Hawaiian Carabidpe." 



The fiightlessness of these forms is discussed at length, and 

 the author notes the common mistake that flightless or wingless 

 beetles are apterous, nearly the whole of the so-called apterous 

 species really possessing four wings. Dr. Sharp, moreover, holds 

 that organs which are functionally useful '* may become again 

 increased after having undergone reduction." 



With regard to the prothoracic setse, although irregularities 

 occur. Dr. Sharp considers that it is "safe to rely on the seta for 

 discriminative purposes." 



Of the precinctive species, nearly the whole of the species are 

 confined to a single island ; when this is not the case, the locali- 

 ties are nearly always on adjacent islands. 



The paper, of which it has been possible to give only a most 

 inadequate sketch, is concluded by a series of bionomic notes, 

 gathered from correspondence between Dr. Sharp and Mr. Per- 

 kins. There are also two elucidatory plates. 



(To be continued.) 



NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 



The National Collection of British Lepidoptera. — Recent ad- 

 ditions to this Collection are — ten male specimens of Miana arciiosa 

 from the Rev. H. H. Slater, Thornhaugb Rectory, Wansford ; and an 

 example of Plusia bractea from W. Mcintosh, Esq., Nevay Park, 

 Meigle, N.B. 



