ON THE COLEOPTEROUS INSECTS OF GALAPAGOS 



ISLANDS. 



By Martin L. Linell,i 



Aid, IHrhion of Insects. 



Tbe general physical features of the Galapagos archipelago have 

 been amply described by Darwin, Salvin, Hooker, and more recently 

 by Alexander Agassiz,^ and need not be repeated here. The extreme 

 poverty of the insect life of these islands is especially alluded to by 

 Mr. Agassi z and particularly illustrated by Dr. Samuel H. Scudder in 

 his account of the Galapagos Orthoptera.'' The whole number of species 

 of this order is 20, including 5 cosmopolitan species. The coleo])terous 

 fauna appears to be relatively equally poor, altliough, as must be 

 exi)ected from any locality, more numerous in species than the Orthop- 

 tera. Charles Darwin, while on the famous Bcaf/le expedition, collected 

 29 species, of which Kev. F. W. Hope^ described one as new. The re- 

 mainder were reported upon by George R. Waterhouse,"* who described 

 22 new species and 3 new genera. Of the remaining species 2 were 

 cosmopolitan and 4 were left as doubtfully identical with species pre- 

 viously known from the American continent. In 1852 the Swedish 

 frigate Eifaenie touched the islands, and from the Coleoptera obtained 

 there Boheman in 1858 described G as new. From that time nntil 1889 

 no further mention was made of the Coleoptera of these islands. In 

 that year Dr. L. O. Howard, in his Annotated Catalogue of the Insects 

 Collected in 1887-88 by U. S. Fish Commission Steamer Albatross," 

 lists 12 species determined by the writer, but the presumably new ones 

 are iiot described. The Albatross again visited the islands in 1891, and 

 3 species were obtained. Later in the same year Dr. G. Baur, of Clark 

 University, on a special trip to the islands, collected 21 species, which 

 he presented to the U. S. National Museum, as the U. S. Fish Commis- 

 sion had done with the two lots previously mentioned. Although some 



' Mr. Linell died May 3, 1897.— Editor. ^Trans. Ent. Soc, Loudon, 1837, p. 130. 

 2Biill. Mus. Comp. Zool., 1892, XXIII, p. 56. 'Ann. Nat. Hist., 1845, XVI, p. 19. 

 3 Idem, 1893, XXV, p. 1. ''Proc. U. S. Nat. Mns., XII, No. 771. 



Proceedings U. S. Nationa: Museum, Vol. XXI— No. 1 143. 



219 



