visit to Ceylon. 477 



are good types of species which exhibit that most bene- 

 ficent phase in the laws of Nature which causes animals 

 of widely different orders to assimilate and adapt them- 

 selves to special modes of existence. The majority of 

 the Geodephaga are of arboreal habits, and live on trees ; 

 Colpodes, Demetrius, and other genera assert themselves 

 in many species, and are instances of those which live 

 on the foliage ; while others which replace Ptcrostichns, 

 &c., which live under stones in Europe, are represented 

 by Pliysocrutaphus and others, which reside in the rotten 

 touchwood of prostrate timber. There is almost an abso- 

 lute tendency in Ceylon for Geodepkaga to become xylo- 

 philous, and with the exception of the HarpaU, hereafter 

 mentioned, I did not find a dozen beetles under stones, 

 and yet I accumulated over 10,000 specimens. Morio, 

 Catascopus, Miscelus again are several only of a long line 

 of truly bark genera. Stones in situations under 6000 feet 

 elevation in exposed places become too lieated for a 

 shelter to Coleoptera, nor are they even useful as such 

 when under the cool shade of the jungle ; for the climate 

 does not render it necessary for insects to seek for any 

 but the most scanty protection, which a mere scrap of 

 moss or loosened bark can supply. 



Out of six species of Scarites, I found only one came 

 from beneath stones, and that occurred at an elevation of 

 7000 feet ; the others were habitually secreted under logs 

 or fallen timber. And in the allied genus Clivina, the 

 commonest species on the coast mixes with the Aphodii, 

 and clusters like them together in groups of six or eight 

 at a time. 



In all families we find the most curiously formed 

 sjoecies (and these are many) are, with a few excep- 

 tions, dependent on kaves, plants, or trees. The 

 paucity of what we consider ordinary forms in Europe is 

 also remarkable, and those found are such as may occur 

 almost anywhere in a ditch, or by a river side, and 

 include Bembidia, Dyschirii, and the commonest forms of 

 Hydradephaga and Stcqmylinidce. The whole of these 

 may be classed as immigrants, and are not, as I believe, 

 even local modifications of Indian forms. There is 

 nothing grand or striking in the fauna, as exhibited in my 

 five months' collection, which does not live on dead 

 timber or living vegetation. 



Some of the recorded Paussidce are very fine, and these 

 prove no exception, as they are indirectly connected with 



