492 



GEOGRAPHICAL ZOOLOGY. 



[PART iv. 



found in Chili and Temperate South America ; " and it has been 

 thought, that in a system of Entomological regions this part of 

 the world must be united. to the Northern Hemisphere. But these 

 writers omit to take into account, either the large numbers of 

 isolated and peculiar forms characteristic of South Temperate 

 America, or the indications of affinity with Tropical America 

 and Australia, both of which are really more important than the 

 connection with Europe. The three important Chilian genera, 

 Cascelius, Barypus, and Cardiopthalmus, are closely allied to the 

 Australian Promecoderus ; others, as Omostenus and Plagiotelium, 

 are quite isolated ; while Antarctia and Metius, according to 

 Lacordaire, form a distinct division of the family. Chili, too, has 

 many species of Pachyteles y Coptodera, and other South American 

 genera ; and this affinity is far stronger in many other families 

 than in the Carabidae. The existence of representatives of 

 typical northern forms in Chili, is a fact of great interest, and 

 may be accounted for in a variety of ways (see Vol. II. p. 44); 

 but it is not of such a magnitude as to be of primary import- 

 ance in geographical distribution, and it can only be estimated 

 at its fair value, by taking into account the affinities of all the 

 groups inhabiting that part of the world. 



LUCANIDJE. (45 Genera, 529 Species.) 



Passing over a number of obscure families, we come to the 

 remarkable group of the Lucanidas, or Stag-beetles, which, being 

 almost all of large size, and many of them of the most striking 

 forms, have been very thoroughly collected and assiduously 

 studied. 



The most curious feature of their general distribution, is 

 their scarcity in Tropical South America, and their complete 

 absence from Tropical North America and the West Indian 

 Islands, though they appear again in Temperate North America. 

 In the New World they may, in fact, be looked upon as a 

 temperate group characteristic of the extra-tropical regions and 

 the highlands ; while in the Old World, where they are far more 

 abundant, they are distinctly tropical, being especially numerous 



