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XIX. Memoir on the Rhyuchota collected by Dr. Arthur 

 Willey, F.R.S., chiefly in Birara (New Britain) 

 and Lifu. By G. W. Kirkaldy, F.E.S. 



[Read June 7th, 1905.] 



Plate XVII. 



Although of an extremely interesting character, the 

 collection of Bhynchota made by Dr. Willey * is too 

 small, and too many of the forms described from neigh- 

 bouring localities are as yet insufficiently known to me, 

 to render a discussion upon their geographical distribution 

 profitable. However, as might have been expected, the 

 Rhynchotal fauna of Lifu j>artakes very closely of the 

 nature of that of New Caledonia, while that of Birara is 

 equally intimately related to the fauna of Papua (or 

 New Guinea), at the same time all these are closely inter- 

 related. Throughout I have employed the terms Lifu and 

 Birara, as it appears expedient to retain the native names 

 of such islands wherever these are distinctive, except 

 those which are extensively colonized by Europeans, as, 

 for example, New Zealand and even New Caledonia. 

 Birara (also spelt Berrara) was formerly known as New 

 Britain, and it was under this term that the bulk of Dr. 

 Willey's researches have been published. The present 

 official term, since the acquisition of the group by Germany, 

 is Neu Pommern (or New Pomerania). The island of 

 Murua, frequently alluded to in the following pages, is 

 also known as " VVoodlark " and is termed " Moiou " by 

 Montrouzier. 



The chief difficulty in the specific determination of 

 this fauna as regards the Bhynchota, is its close relation- 

 ship with that of Papua (or New Guinea), the latter being 

 as yet very imperfectly known, the latest descriptions 

 dating in some cases from Guetin-Meneville's contribution 

 to the " Voyage of the Coquille," and Boisduval's 



* This Memoir may be regarded as a supplement to the "Zoolo- 

 gical Results based on material . . . collected by Dr. Willey," published 

 in five volumes by the Cambridge University Press, 1898-1902. 



TRANS. ENT. SOC. LOND. 1905. — PART III. (OCT.) 



