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XIX. Revision of the genera and species of Malaco- 

 derm Coleoptera of the Japanese fauna. By Eev. 

 H. S. Gorham, F.Z.S. 



[Read September 5th, 1883.] 

 Part I.— LYCIDiE, LAMPYKIDjE. 



Plate XVII. 



In offering the descriptions of the many new species of 

 beetles of the Malacoderm portion of Mr. Lewis' recent 

 collection, I shall follow the example of other authors of 

 descriptive papers submitted to this Society of prefacing 

 them by a few remarks on the light they appear to 

 throw on the distribution of animal life to this eastern 

 limit of the globe. But I would first desire to say that 

 we very much want a few guiding principles as to how 

 the subject of distribution is to be approached, and to 

 define at the outset whether we are referring to a sup- 

 posed migration from one or more centres, or to, what is 

 far oftener apparently intended, the development of the 

 family or order within the district itself. To get a clear 

 idea of this I think we may divide the genera and 

 species of any family of sufficient importance into three 

 categories : — 



1. The generalised or undifferentiated type. 



2. The ordinary type. 



3. The specialised or much modified type. 



Of these the first includes such genera as are found 

 with little modification in far distant and dissimilar 

 parts of the world, and I take to indicate an ancient 

 settlement of the family wherever they occur. They are 

 the unaltered representatives of the stock from which 

 the rest have sprung. 



The second embraces the larger number of both 

 genera and species ; it is by its alliances and apparent 

 migrations that we shall be able to gain an approach to 

 a solution of those difficult problems of distribution, by 

 land- or by sea-currents or by flight through the air, 

 which occupy so many minds at the present moment. 



TRANS. ENT. SOC. 1883. PART IV. (NOV.) 



