JOURNAL OF ENTOMOLOGY. 



No. IV. — December, 1861. 



XVII. — On certain Cohoptera from St. Helena. By T. Vernon 

 WoLLASTOIf, M.A., F.L.S. 



Any material from so remote a spot as St. Helena, which is about 

 1200 miles from the nearest point of the African coast, must of 

 necessity prove highly interesting, — more particularly to the geo- 

 graphical naturalist, for whom a more isolated field could scarcely 

 perhaps be found. True it is that the island must have greatly 

 deteriorated, in a scientific point of \-iew, during the last 300 years, 

 since but few traces of the forests now remain which are said to have 

 clothed it at its discovery; nevertheless in the small parts which 

 are still left untouched, and have escaped the ruthless hand of 

 "civilization,'- some glimpses of its ancient glory may doubtless be 

 discerned ; and from the general character of these '■' fragmentary 

 remains " we must needs build up our estimate, as correctly as we 

 can, of the primeval forms with which this little oasis of the mid- 

 Atlantic was originally stocked. In the present paper I do not 

 intend to make any allusion to the stray insects which have been 

 recorded, from time to time, by other naturalists from this distant 

 rock, — most of which, like the Calosoma Helenas (brought from thence 

 by Mr. DarAvin, and described by the Rev. F. W. Hope), are peculiar 

 to it ; but, having lately received from my friend Mr. Bewicke of 

 Madeira a most important batch of 14 species, collected by himself 

 (whilst touching there, en route from the Cape, on the 21st of July 

 last), during two or three hours' research " amongst indigenous 

 woods on the extreme summit* of the island," I propose merely to 



* By reference to an encyclopivdia, it would appear that St. Helena rises 

 abruptly from llie Atlantic, and attains an elevation (at its liigliesf point) of 

 about 27(.)0 feet above the sea. 



