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V. On some New Zealand Coleoptera. By D. Sharp. 

 [Read March 1st, 1882.] 



A SMALL parcel of Coleoptera, received a few weeks since 

 by me from Mr. Helms, of Greymouth, New Zealand, 

 has proved, on examination, to contain such a large 

 proportion of new and interesting forms as to make me 

 believe that it would be acceptable to entomologists that 

 I should briefly define and record some of them. Hence 

 the present paper. 



The idea formerly universally accepted, to the effect 

 that the New Zealand fauna is poor in insects, is now, 

 so far as regards the order Coleoptera, shown to have 

 been completely erroneous. Some 1400 or 1500 species 

 of this order are now recorded from the islands in 

 question, and yet a considerable proportion of the species 

 found by Mr. Helms in the neighbourhood of his resi- 

 dence prove to be new. And there can, indeed, be little 

 doubt but that the number of existing species in the 

 islands will amount to three thousand, or even more, — not 

 improbably nearer to four thousand. 



Under these circumstances, the publication in 1880* 

 of a Manual of New Zealand Coleoptera by the Colonial 

 Museum and Geological Survey Department of the 

 Colony, must clearly be characterised as premature, and 

 has indeed been proved so by the additions of some 

 hundreds of species made since its appearance. The 

 volume contains descriptions of 1141 s]3ecies, a con- 

 siderable proportion of which are reprints of papers or 

 works that have appeared elsewhere, many of them quite 

 recently, while the remainder — to the number of fully 500 

 — have been drawn up by Capt. Thomas Broun, whose skill 

 and enthusiasm as a collector are deserving of the 

 highest praise and warmest encouragement, but whose 



* ' Manual of the New Zealand Coleoptera.' By Capt. Thomas 

 Broun. Published by Command. Wellington, 1880. 



TRANS. ENT. SOC. 1882. — PART I. (APRIL.) L 



