Coleoptera of New Zealand. 17 



bourlioods of tlie settlements where they are located, shows 

 how much yet remains to be done before we can be said to 

 have a satisfactory knowledge of the insect-fauna of New 

 Zealand. The representatives of this almost exclusively wood- 

 eating coleopterous family are evidently much more numerous 

 in species there than in the British Isles, 57 being already 

 known ; whereas in Britain we have only 56, a number not 

 likely to be increased by future researches. It would be 

 proper, doubtless, to withdraw from the New-Zealand list four 

 of the species as being evidently introduced (three from 

 Australia and one from Europe) , thus leaving 53 only ; but, on 

 the other hand, several undescribed species exist in private 

 collections. 



The remarks I had occasion to make in a former paper on 

 the family Geodephaga, as to the strong endemicity of the 

 New-Zealand Coleopterous fauna, are more than justified by 

 the subsequent study of the family Longicornia. A close and 

 repeated examination of all parts of the external structure 

 which afford characters for judging on the affinity of forms in 

 this difficult group, has resulted in showing that very few 

 indeed of the New-Zealand genera are found in other parts of 

 the world. Out of the total number of 35, no fewer than 26, 

 as far as at present known, are peculiar to the islands ; and 

 about a dozen of these have no near relationship to forms 

 occurring elsewhere, the rest being more or less related to 

 genera found in Lord Howe's Island, New Caledonia, and 

 Australia. It is in these two latter countries that seven of 

 the other nine genera occur, one only of them {Demotiax) ex- 

 tending its range through the Moluccas to South-eastern Asia. 

 As to species, all, except one [ILjlotrupes hajuJus) introduced 

 from Europe and three introduced from Australia, are peculiar 

 to the islands. 



Coleoptera Longicornia. 



Family Prionidse. 



Prionoplus reticularis. 



Prionophis reticularis, "White, Dieffenbach's 'New Zealand,' ii. p. 276; 

 Westwood, Arcana Entomologica, ii. p. 2o, t. ^(S. f. 1. 



Northern and Southern islands. 



Family Cerambycidae. 

 Division I. Eyes coarsely faceted. 

 Phoracantha dorsalis, Newm. 

 I have not seen any specimen from New Zealand of this 

 Ann. ck Mag. N: Tlisf". Scr. 4. TW. xiv. 2 



