ANNULOSA JAVANICA. 49 
Oss. The occurrence in Java of genera like this, hitherto supposed to be peculiar to America, 
is a circumstance important in entomological geography, and which we shall frequently have 
occasion to allude to. In the mean time I shall observe that the antenne of the only specimen 
in the East-India Company’s collection have lost their last joints, having only two of that 
setiform part which so singularly distinguishes this genus from all others known. (Vide Lat. 
Gen. Ins. et Crust. Vol. 2. p. 44.) Such antenne agree in scarcely any respect with those of 
other Chilopodomorpha, and I am therefore by no means convinced of the propriety of placing 
this insect here, and must consider the matter as undecided until a more accurate investigation 
shall have been made from an unmutilated specimen. 
Stirps 5. BRACHELYTRA. Lat. 
It is a singular circumstance that no insect of this stirps, which is the same as the Linnean 
genus Staphylinus was collected by Dr. Horsfield. This at all events proves the extreme rarity 
of such insects in Java. Of their existence in the island I have no doubt, since they have 
been brought both from New Holland and the Continent of India, and it would therefore be 
remarkable did they not occur in the intervening islands. When it is considered that the 
British species of this stirps are so numerous, it appears very extraordinary that not one should 
have occurred in Java. But in this, as in all other tropical climates, the surface of the earth is 
almost exclusively occupied by ants, and according to Dr. Horsfield, where the common ants 
are not found the Termites or white ants possess the territory. These two tribes, which are 
constantly at war, or rather, which clear away and destroy each other as their numbers res- 
pectively predominate, have in a great measure divided the surface of the island among them- 
selves. From their incredible numbers, particularly of the common ant, little is left on the 
surface for other insects. Swarming on every spot, and incessantly in motion, they attack and 
devour whatever animal matter they meet with in a much shorter period than would be thought 
possible by a person who had not witnessed the fact. But nevertheless whenever in his excursions 
Dr. Horsfield observed the carcase of any animal, he and his assistants carefully examined it, and 
from the care they took in such labours, he is convinced that had Si/phide, Staphylinide and 
such carrion-feeding families of insects occurred in any tolerable abundance, they could scarcely 
have escaped his researches. With respect to such genera of Brachelytra as inhabit fowers, 
he scarcely conceives, had they been common, that they could have escaped him, as he was in 
constant habit of collecting on plants and flowers. 
In the third volume of the 2égne Animal, M. Latreille has divided his groupe of Brachelytres 
into four sections, which he terms Fissilabres, Longipalpes, Applatis and Microcephales, all 
of which are apparently natural groupes. Now if to these we add his grand division of Dimerous 
insects, we have the whole of the Brachelytra, which may therefore be arranged thus : 
BRACHELYTRA. 
2. Aberrant groupe ? 5. Tachyporide, vel Microcephales Lat. 
Caput haud thoracis 4, Pselaphide, Leach vel Dimera Lat. 
magnitudine, 3. Omalide, vel Applatis Lat. 
1, Normal groupe ? ( 2. Stenide, vel Longipalpes Lat. 
Caput thoracis Z ae ee 
magnitudine. ” 1, Staphylinide, vel Fissilabres Lat. 
H The 
