liii 



transported from one country to another by accidental causes, 

 especially in the case of the carnivorous and apterous species. 

 He also believes that beetles (and insects generally) possess a long 

 enduring persistency of form, by which the same type has been 

 preserved through many geological epochs. He then discusses 

 the causes that have led to the distribution of animals, and 

 maintains the view, of which he is now one of the few advocates, 

 that no marked community of forms or species can exist between 

 two countries, without proving that there has been an actual 

 continuity of land between them. 



A very prominent feature of Mr. Murray's paper is his division 

 of the Coleoptera of the world into three grand stirpes or races, 

 which he terms the Indo -African, the Brazilian, and the 

 Microtypal stirps. The first comprehends all the characteristic 

 forms of the Eastern tropics, the second all those of tropical 

 America, the third those of the temperate regions of the whole 

 world, not excluding even Australia. He believes that this 

 primary division is to be traced with more or less distinctness in 

 every part of nature, and supports his views by a reference to 

 other groups, and especially by the e\'idence of Palaeontology, 

 which shows that the Eocene Flora of Europe resembled that 

 which now exists in Australia. 



The Coleopterous fauna of the Atlantic islands is next discussed 

 at great length, and the facts are held to prove that the whole of 

 these islands from the Azores to the Cape de Verdes, and even to 

 St. Helena, are jDortions of a vast submerged continent, occupying 

 a large part of the eastern Atlantic, and which was connected 

 with, or formed an extension of, Southern Europe. The chief 

 novelty of this view is the bringing St, Helena into the Atlantic 

 group and its fauna into the microtypal stirps. Certain isolated 

 affinities of African and American groups are believed to prove 

 two distinct land-connections across the Atlantic, one between 

 Brazil and Equatorial Africa, the other between Patagonia and 

 South Africa. The islands of the Pacific, having a microtypal 

 fauna, must have had land-connection with North America or 

 Australia. Australia itself is shown to have affinities with South 

 America, South Africa and Europe, and must therefore at one 

 time or another have had land-connection with all these countries. 

 The Urania Rhiplieus of Madagascar, with a few beetles and 

 reptiles of American forms, require a direct land-connection with 



