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XI.—ON NEW ZEALAND COLEOPTERA, WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW 
GENERA AND SPECIES. By DAVID SHARP, M.B. [Communicated by 
Proressor W. R. M‘NAB, Consulting Botanist and Entomologist to the Royal 
Dublin Society.] Plates XII. and XIII. 
[ Read, November 18, 1885. } 
AttuoucH the entomology of New Zealand is of considerable interest, owing to 
the antipodean and isolated position of the islands, it is still very imperfectly 
known ; indeed, for reasons which it is difficult to comprehend, it has, until 
recently, been supposed that this department of the New Zealand fauna was 
chiefly remarkable for its extreme poverty. Linneus was not acquainted with 
any beetles from there; but a small number were obtained by the naturalists of 
Captain Cook’s voyage; and some of these were described by Fabricius about 
one hundred years ago, and are—in part at any rate—still preserved in the Bank- 
sian collection in our national museum at Kensington. After this very little was 
done at New Zealand entomology till 1846, when the zoology of the voyage of 
H. M. ships ‘ Erebus’ and ‘ Terror’ was, by authority of the Lords Commissioners 
of the Admiralty, in part published. The entomological portion was executed by 
Adam White, and the Coleoptera, so far as then known, were completely enu- 
merated, other parts of the entomology remaining unpublished. This work in- 
cluded the specimens obtained during the voyage of the ships I have mentioned, 
and also a few collected by Charles Darwin on his voyage round the world, and 
some obtained from Dr. Sinclair, Mr. Earl, and others. About one hundred and 
fifty species were thus brought together. Very little was done from that time till 
the year 1867, when a new era, as regards the Coleoptera of New Zealand, may 
be said to have commenced, by the description by Bates of a small collection sent 
by Fereday to this country ; and the result of the activity of several entomologists 
during this latter period is, that the catalogue of the New Zealand Coleoptera is in- 
creased from about one hundred and fifty to about one thousand five hundred species. 
Messrs. R. W. Fereday, and C. M. Wakefield of Christchurch, as well as Professor 
Hutton, were perhaps those who in the early part of this period contributed most 
to this great increase ; and they were followed by Mr. T. Lawson, and Captain 
Thomas Broun of Auckland, and last, though not least, by Mr. R. Helms of 
Greymouth. 
TRANS, ROY. DUB. SOC., N.S, VOL. Ill, 3B 
