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III. Descriptions of some new species and a 7iew genus 

 of Rhyncopliorous Coleoptera, from the Ha- 

 waiian Islands. By D. Sharp. 



[Read December 5th, 1877.] 



The Insects desci'ibcd in this Pajier are all due to the in- 

 defatigable efforts of the Rev. T. Blackburn, who is at 

 present residing in Honolulu, and is, as far as he can find 

 leisure, bent on ascertaining as thoroughly as possible the 

 nature and extent of the insect fauna of the group of 

 Sandwich Islands. 



The Polynesian Islands have been hitherto considered 

 to harbour but very few species of Coleoptera, and it 

 remains to be seen to wdiat extent Mr. Blackburn's 

 investigations Avill confirm the reports of former observers. 

 It may be said, however, already, that the poverty of 

 these Islands in Coleoptera is not yet to be accepted. 

 Fairmaire, in his Memoir on the Coleoptera of Polynesia, 

 published in 1849, was only able to report 140 species of 

 the family from the whole of the Polynesian Islands, and 

 thought that this number would not be readily increased, 

 for M. Vesco, so he informs us, required several years of 

 research in Tahiti before he could discover 100 species, 

 while Mr. Blackburn has been able, I believe, to amass 

 between two and three hundred species during two seasons 

 collecting in the Island of Oahu. Mr. Blackburn, in the 

 letters I have received from him several times, alludes to 

 the peculiar poverty of specimens of Coleoptera. Again 

 and again he has visited a spot where he had formerly 

 found an individual of some species he desired, without 

 being able to discover a second example, so that of the 

 greater part of the species he has discovered he finds it 

 extremely difficult to accumulate anything approaching to 

 a series of individuals. This fact is quite in accordance 

 with the observations of such collectors as have visited 

 these islands; it may, perhaps, be ultimately discovered 

 that the insect inhabitants of this spot having been neces- 

 sarily confined during a very long period to one small 

 area, have become less fertile than is the case in localities 

 where the obstacles to a considerable change of locality 



TRANS. ENT. SOC. 1878. — PART I. (aPR.) 



