Genera of the CossonidcB. 433 
Notiomimetides, in which the visual organs are so far 
reduced in dimensions, and so rudimentary in character, as 
to be emphatically obsolete. 
Into the question of the geographical distribution I need 
not noAV enter, for a glance at the systematic catalogue 
will suffice to shew approximately what the ranges are of 
the several tj^^es. It is curious however to note how large 
a proportion of the latter, which have hitherto been brought 
to light, possess insular habitats ; and, if we except the 
great and almost cosmopolitan genus Cossonus, it would 
seem as if islands afforded conditions more peculiarly 
favourable for the modes of life of the members of the 
present family. And this completely accords with my 
own experience in the sub- African archipelagos, — no island 
appearing to be too minute for the modus vivendi of the 
Cossonids. In the Maderian and Canarian groups there 
is scarcely any fact more distinctly observable, — where 
every detached rock is tenanted by some one represen- 
tative, or more, of this particular department. Nor are 
trees and shrubs (which seldom flourish in localities thus 
weather-beaten and exposed) by any means essential for 
their support, — the pithy stems of the ordinary plants 
being amply sufficient to sustain them ; and I have 
frequently found the stalks of dead Thistles and Umbel- 
lifercB to be perforated through-and-through by their 
ravages. In o\\x own country the Cossonids would seem 
to play a very insignificant part amongst the Coleopterous 
population, only nine members having hitherto been re- 
corded ; whereas at the Canaries (made up, as they are, 
of so many islands and islets) I have myself met with no 
less than fourteen, and at the Madeiras (avIhcIi present a 
considerably smaller area) with nineteen ; whilst even in 
the little island of St. Helena (the geographical base of 
which does not exceed that of the Isle of Wight) as many 
as fourteen have already been noted, and these I have good 
reason to suspect represent but an instalment of its Avhole 
Cossonideous fauna. The British members of our present 
family are as follows : — Fcntarthrum Huttoni, Woll. 
(= Rhyncolus Hervei, Allard) ; Phloeophagus spadix^ 
Hbst., and (Bneopiceus, Bohm. ; Rliopalomesites Tardii, 
Curt. ; Cossonus ferrugineus, Clairv. ; Rhyncolus ater, 
Linn. (== chloropus, Fab.), cylindrirostris, Oliv. (= lig- 
narius, Mshm.), and gracilis, Kosenh. ; and Stereocorynes 
truncorum. Germ. 
