D. Suarp—Topographical Table of Hawaiian Coleoptera. 263 
ELT. 
TOPOGRAPHICAL TABLE OF HAWAIIAN COLEOPTERA, WITH SUMMARY, GENERAL- 
IZATIONS, AND COMMENTS. By D. SHARP. 
The coleoptera of the Sandwich Islands are mostly small or very minute 
insects; and the few species whose individuals are of large size are either known 
to be non-endemie or will nearly certainly be found to be so: and of the endemic 
that 
would strike an ordinary observer as being beautiful; Clytarlus microgaster is 
species there are few—probably it would be correct to say absolutely none 
indeed the only endemic species that has any special adornment appreciable by 
the human eye. But they are of great interest owing to the remote and isolated 
position of the group of islands they inhabit; and there can be no doubt that a 
thorough and accurate knowledge of them and their peculiarities would be 
important evidence as to the validity of the theory of organic evolution. If we 
understood thoroughly the structures of the inhabitants of the archipelago, and 
could make a valid estimate of the totality of peculiarity they possess, we should be 
in a position to discuss the question of how this peculiarity is to be accounted for. 
We do not, however, yet possess an accurate idea of the total peculiarity of the 
organisms of these islands, both because the creatures found there are only very 
imperfectly known, and also because our knowledge of the inhabitants of other 
places is in many respects only rudimentary, so that accurate comparison is not at 
present possible. Still, owing to the special interest attaching to this fauna, I have 
drawn up a table to illustrate the amount of its endemicity, and will briefly sum- 
marise the results of my examination. 
There are in all 150 genera, comprising 428 species, found in the islands, and 
of this number 99 of the genera and 352 of the species are at present known only 
from the archipelago. This bare statement would convey, I believe, a far from 
correct impression, and I will briefly pass in review the components of the fauna, the 
object kept in view being to get a right impression of the amount of endemicity. 
The family Cicindelide, universal on continental lands, is absent from the 
Sandwich Islands, as it is from all other remote island groups. 
The family Carabide has, on the contrary, eleven genera and sixty-one 
species, of which seven genera, comprising thirty-three species, are peculiar to the 
islands; this statement, however, requires supplementing, for the genus Sarony- 
chium, belonging to the Lebiini, will probably be found elsewhere,* while on the 
other hand the genus Cyclothorax, with twenty-one species in these islands, has 
only one species outside of them, it being found in Australia and New Zcaland. 
* No exponent of this genus has reached Europe for comparison; only two individuals, indeed, of the 
§. inconspicuum, its only species, having been found. 
TRANS. ROY. DUB. SOC., N.S. VOL. III. 2N 
