( '5 ) 
II. On the Cossonidge of Japan. 
By T. Vernon Wollaston, M.A., F.L.S. 
[Read 6th January, 1873.] 
Having been requested by Mr. G. Lewis to draw up a 
paper on the various members of the CossonidcB which he 
obtained during his late residence in Japan, and which 
form an important (though perhaps not very considerable) 
item of his Coleopterous gleanings, I have done so, — though 
not without some slight degree of regret at the large num- 
ber of new genera which I have found it necessary to esta- 
blish. I say " regret," because where species are compa- 
ratively small in size, and present no modifications of 
structure which are at once striking and conspicuous, and 
where moreover external characters can alone be employed 
for the purposes of classification, one would far rather 
admit them into groups which are already recognized than 
propose additional ones for their reception. Yet, after a 
very carefid examination of Mr. Lewis's material, I feel 
convinced that the ordinary European types do not prevail 
in that particular portion of the Japanese empire to which 
his researches have been confined, — their places being 
manifestly taken by kindred, and to some extent repre- 
sentative, forms, which have geographically too much 
importance not to be acknowledged as distinct. What 
the case may be in the northern and central parts of the 
archipelago I have no means of ascertaining, — for, unless 
I am much mistaken, Mr. Lewis's explorations were pro- 
secuted chiefly in the island of Kushiu and the southern 
division of Nipon ; but it is not improbable that the large 
island of Yesso, and the still larger and more northern one 
of Saghalien (which nevertheless is not, I believe, regarded 
as an integral portion of the Japanese empire), wovdd have, 
to a .considerable extent, faunas of their own. Be this 
however as it may, I woidd desire to state that it is to the 
south of Japan that the present memoir must be considered 
as more properly to pertain. 
Glancing at the 18 species described below (and which 
are embodied in 15 genera), there are a fcAV points which 
strike one as requiring comment, — amongst which stands 
TRANS. ENT. SOC. 1873. — PART I. (MAR.) 
