and species of Pselaplildcc and Scijdinccnldce. 485 



great reason to fear that the fauna itself is rapidlj dis- 

 appearing. ISIanj causes may be suggested for this fact. 

 The islands are stretched over a large space fi'om north to 

 south, and but a small one from east to west ; and it is 

 ]>robable therefore that a large proportion of the species 

 have small areas of distribution, and can therefore be 

 easily killed out, while the great change that the coloniza- 

 tion of the country and the cultivation of its soil must 

 cause, assure us that such will certainly be the case. And 

 it would, moreover, be probably correct to add that it is in 

 all probability just the most interesting forms that are the 

 first to disappear in such cases. 



Under these circumstances, while thanking greatly those 

 Entomologists who have commenced the collection of ma- 

 terial for a fauna of these islands, I think we are wan-anted 

 in asking them to persevere assiduously Avith their re- 

 searches, and more particularly to neglect no opportunity 

 of examining such portions of the islands as are at present 

 fi-ee from Avhat may, in a zoological sense, be correctly 

 called the ravages of civilization. 



PSELAPHID^E. 



Ctenistes impressus, n. sp. Eufescens, antennis minus 

 elongatis, prothorace subtransverso, lateribus evidentcr 

 callo'so, imjn-essione intermedia basall antice sub-furcata, 

 elytris brevibus. Long. corp. vix H nnn._ 



Mas, pectore profunde impresso, abdomine segmento 3° 

 ventrali medio late leviter impresso. 



AntennjB rather short, first and second joints short, rather 

 thickerthan the following ones ; joints3— 7 scarcely differing 

 from one another, rather slender, each about as long as broad ; 

 8 and 9 distinctly broader than 7th, each about as long as 

 broad ; 10th joint rather stouter than 9 th, scarcely so long 

 as broad ; 1 1th joint elongate and rather stout, about as 

 Iono< as the three preceding joints together, it is distinctly 

 stouter than the 10th joint, but its length is not quite 

 twice its width. Head small, with the anterior tubercles 

 short, and connate, the fovea behind them mdistmct ; the 

 two fovea? on the vertex, separated from one another only 

 by a narrow space ; the eyes small. Thorax much nar- 

 rower than the elytra, about as long as broad the sides 

 distinctly dilated; the sides and front of the middle basal 

 fovea are obscurely elevated, s'o that the fovea has a slight 



