SHarp—On New Zealand Coleoptera. 353 
former family there is not one in New Zealand, and of the latter only two minute 
and comparatively obscure forms. Next to these two families in brilliancy of 
colour come the Phytophaga, which usually form a large proportion of the beetles 
of continental lands; but in New Zealand are few in numbers, small in size, and 
without any large and beautifully coloured representatives. In the weevils, too, 
there is nothing like the brilliant Phyllobii and Polydrusi which are amongst the 
most abundant of European Curculionide. So, too, in esthetic and sexual or- 
namentation the New Zealand beetles are clearly deficient ; no Longicorn has yet 
been obtained with tufted antennz; there is not a horned Lamellicorn in the 
islands ; and not one of the numerous Lucanidz possesses a male with really large 
mandibles. The beetle in a New Zealand collection that would most strike an 
ordinary eye is, I think, Lasiorhynchus barbicornis, on which I shall make a 
remark below. 
But if to the uneducated sense the New Zealand beetles are deficient, they 
amply compensate for this by some other peculiarities interesting to the trained 
intelligence. There are a considerable number of isolated forms having—it ap* 
pears at present—little or no connexion with the ordinary coleopterous fauna of 
the islands. As instances I may mention Amarotypus (the sole representative of 
the first primary division of the Carabidze,* usually called Carabini, but for 
which I much prefer the appellation Carabici fragmentati), Lenax, Rhyssodes, 
Diagrypnodes, Picrotus, Dendroblax, Saphobius, Brounia, Amplectopus, Rhino- 
rhynchus, Rhadinosomus, Clypeorhynchus, Paraphylax, Lasiorhynchus, Aglycy- 
deres, Prionoplus. The study of these isolated forms will be an important feature 
in the New Zealand entomology of the future, with a view to ascertaining how 
much distinction they possess from the other creatures with whom they now live, 
and from those of other countries; an answer to this question being an essential 
preliminary to the inquiry whether these forms should be considered, notwith- 
standing their isolation, as really a part of the New Zealand endemic insects, or 
whether they have been more recently introduced. As in my opinion we do not 
know at present more than half of the New Zealand beetles, it is evidently possible 
that some of these isolated forms may prove to be connected with the more or- 
dinary fauna by intermediates. 
I have already alluded to the fact that in my opinion the New Zealand beetles 
will be found to exhibit a less evolution of their structural characters than their 
analogues m continental countries; but I offer this opinion with much diffidence, 
for really the data for its adequate discussion are not yet extant. Indeed, in the 
case of some of the structures of beetles, we have not sufficient knowledge of their 
functional importance to enable us to decide which is lower, which higher. Still 
* Clivina rugithorax, Putz, also belongs to this division, but is only, perhaps an Australian insect, 
for it is apparently confined to the neighbourhood of Auckland, and, if so, has probably been introducel 
by commerce. 
3B 2 
