Mr. T. V. Wollaston on the Coleoptera of St. Helena. 29 



found in St. Helena, answering to the Fabrician diagnosis, 

 whicli has escaped detection in more recent times ; and my 

 reason for regarding it as an Aspidomorpha (a genus which 

 occurs in western Africa and the Cape -Verde archipelago) is 

 simply because Boheman, in his Monograph of the family, 

 cites the Cassida miliar is of Fabricius as a member of that 

 particular genus. Yet, on the other hand, Boheman does not 

 acknowledge the species which he has identified with the 

 Fabrician one as a native of St. Helena at all, but, rather, of 

 the East Indies, Java, Celebes, China, and the Philippine 

 Islands, which at once raises a geographical difficulty which 

 it is not easy to solve. But, as there appears no cause (in the 

 absence of any kind of explanation by Boheman) for assuming 

 the originally asserted habitat^ of Fabricius, to be incorrect, I 

 prefer the contrary conclusion, and should be inclined to think 

 that Boheman may himself have been mistaken in identifying 

 a Cassida of Eastern Asia Avith one [perhaps closely allied) 

 from St. Helena. At any rate, as I have no evidence (beyond 

 the tacit assumption of Boheman) that Fabricius and Sir 

 Joseph Banks were alike in error concerning the country from 

 Avhich the original C. miliaris was received, I have no choice 

 but to include the species in the present memoir. 



Fam. 23. CoccinellidaB. 

 Genus 41. Cydonia. 

 Mulsant, Securip. 430 (1851). 



64. Cydonia lunata. 



Cocdnella lunata, Fab., Syst. Ent. 86 (1775). 



, Id., Syst. Eleuth. i. 384 (1801). 



Cydonia lunata, Muls., Securip. 4.31 (1851). 

 , WoU., Joiirn. of Ent. i. 214 (1861). 



This curiously and prettily marked Coccinellid appears to 

 be common in St. Helena, wdiere it has been taken abundantly 

 by Mr. Melliss and previously also by Mr. Bewicke and others. 

 Indeed, although with a wide geographical range (it having 

 been recorded from Senegal, the Cape of Good Hope, CafFraria, 

 Madagascar, the islands of Bourbon and Mauritius, the East 

 Indies and Java) , it was originally described by Fabricius (in 

 1775) from St.-Helena specimens, now in the Banksian col- 

 lection ; and therefore, whatever doubt may be entertained as 

 to the claim for specific separation of some of the extreme 

 states which have been ascribed to it, there can at least be no 

 question about the St.-Helena form, which must of necessity 

 be looked upon as tlie typical one. 



