D. Suarrp—Topographical Table of Hawaiian Coleoptera. 273 
this important question. I am myself profoundly convinced that such knowledge 
will ultimately be found to be of extreme value, and its possession a great blessing 
to the human race. I agree with Mr. Wallace in thinking that it can be only 
obtained by resident naturalists (vide Island Life, p. 7, note); and I would 
respectfully urge on those who have the guidance and control of the small amount 
of funds devoted to the acquisition and preservation of organised knowledge, 
attention to the fact that such knowledge as that I am alluding to can be gained 
with greater completeness by us than it can be by any future generation. 
Some of the largest and most important of the families of Coleoptera are quite 
unrepresented in the autochthonous fauna of the islands; there are no Cicindelide, 
no Buprestidze, no Lamellicorns ; and the enormous series of Phytophaga, with 
probably 50 or 100,000 species on the earth, is quite unrepresented at present in 
these islands either by autochthonous or foreign forms. 
Although the number of species found in the islands is already considerable, yet 
it is still far from being anything like complete; some of the islands, indeed, have 
been comparatively little explored. Although it is clear that valuable results may 
be obtained by a comparison of the separate faunze of each of the islands, yet at 
present it would not be justifiable to found any speculations on the facts we already 
know, because much more complete knowledge is attainable, and we may hope will 
ultimately be attained. As, however, there appears very little prospect of any 
fresh information being obtained for some time to come, I shall briefly summarise 
the facts under this heading as they at present appear. 
In the island of Hawaii eighty-six species have been found; in Maui 107; in 
Lanai thirty-five; in Oahu 276; in Kauai fifty-one. Oahu thus stands far ahead 
of the others in the number of species it has produced, and there is much reason for 
believing that it is really the most productive of the islands; it has been well 
searched, and it is probable that the total number of species of Coleoptera at 
present to be found in it does not much exceed 300. On the other hand, the 
remaining islands are far less completely explored ; and I estimate that when they 
have been better examined the total number of species of Coleoptera at present to 
be found in the islands may rise from 428 to somewhere between 550 and 600.* 
If we confine our attention to the endemic or autochthonous species (or rather 
to those considered such by me), we then find that the numbers found in the dif- 
ferent islands stand as follows:—Hawaii, 55; Maui, 52; Lanai, 14; Oahu, 95; 
Kauai, 18. 
Thus we see that of the Coleopterous fauna of Hawaii, ‘64 is autochthonous, 
‘36 foreign; in Maui, -486 is autochthonous, 514 foreign; while in Lanai the 
proportions stand as °4 and °6; in Oahu, ‘344 and ‘656; and in Kauai, ‘35, -65, 
* Mr. Blackburn, ante p. 208, places the number very much higher—between 800 and 900—and I 
think his estimate likely to prove nearer the truth than mine. 
202 
