69 



mencing with the Quehec list, it must be remembered that it is for the 

 whole Frovince, and that it includes all species recorded therefrom. 

 Nominally it contains 1,012 species, but many of the names are merely 

 synonyms foi-, or vaiieties of, other species. The Lake Superior and 

 Michigan lists include all species then known from these extensive dis- 

 tricts, while that of Florida deals with a very large and varied country 

 having a particularly rich flora and fauna. The only really local lists 

 are those of Grimsby and Buffalo. I do not know how long Mr. Pettit 

 collected at the former place, but from the extent of his list and from 

 his reputation as a coleopterist it is probable that he was working for 

 many years. The Bufialo list is the result, as stated by the autliors, of 

 the labour of seventeen years, during which period all their leisure 

 hours were exclusively devoted to the accumulation and study of the 

 species occurring in their vicinity. 



Our Ottawa coleoptera have (with the exception of a few species 

 secured at Club excursions) been collected within a radius of ten or 

 twelve miles, and nearly all the si)ecies have been taken sincp the for- 

 mation of the Club, or within the past six years. I am indebted to 

 Mr. James Fletcher for a number of species, and to Mr. A. W. Hanham, 

 a former membei', for several, while a few specimens have been received 

 from other members. 



The few families to which special attention has been given in col- 

 lecting are found by comparison with the above lists to be very well 

 represented, but in many families the number of species is very small. 

 Carabidpe, for instance, are represented in the Grimsby list by 156 

 species, Lake Superior 202, Michigan 204 and Bufialo 186, while we 

 have as yet only 114. Again, the water-beetles — dytiscida?, gyrinidaj 

 and hydrophilidre — are: Grimsby 80 species, Lake Superior 119, 

 Michigan 104, Bufialo 77 and Ottawa only 65. As water beetles are 

 apparently as numerous in these latitudes as they are f:\rther south 

 (the Florida list gives only 60 or 65 species), we should have very 

 many more species on our list. If 119 species occur at Lake Superior, 

 the fauna of which most closely resembles ours, there seems to be no 

 reason why our list should not contain at least 100, when our rivers, 

 lakes and other waters are examined with any degree of care. 



