ANTIQUITY OF INSECT FAUNA 391 



the Antilles, while all other members of the genus are 

 American. The only relation of the bug Metacanthus con- 

 color of St. Helena occurs in Europe, whereas the three most 

 closely Allied ,genera inhabit America. The genus Nysius 

 has a world-wide range, and is known from American Miocene 

 deposits. Cardiastethus occurs in Europe as well as in St. 

 Helena, but the genus is mostly American, and from there 

 ranges across the Pacific to New Zealand. Nabis capsiformis 

 occurs in southern Europe, and also all over Africa and 

 America, while the genus has a world-wide range. The allied 

 Vernonia of St. Helena has near relatives in the West Indies 

 and the western Pacific region. Salda is a distinctly northern 

 genus, although a few species reappear far southward of 

 the others in Chile, New Zealand and St. Helena. That such 

 a range implies great generic antiquity is evident, and, 

 indeed, Salda is known in several species from the lower 

 Oligocene. 



Of the Curculionidae which are so largely represented in the 

 fauna of St. Helena, and which Dr. Wallace thought might be 

 of Miocene age, many recent genera are now known from the 

 Lower Oligocene and they are probably much older even than 

 that, for, according to Dr. Handlirsch, over two hundred 

 species are now known from Oligocene deposits. The genus 

 Homalota which Dr. Wallace fancied was exclusively Euro- 

 pean, is represented in the Oligocene of North America. 

 Philonthus, Xantholinus and Oxytelus occur in the American 

 Miocene and European Lower Oligocene. The supposed 

 European genera of insects inhabiting St. Helena are thus 

 mostly groups of very wide range, or such of which 

 we actually possess palaeontological evidence of their having 

 existed since early Tertiary times. 



However ancient the insect fauna may be, remarks Dr. 

 Wallace, the flora must be more ancient still. Of the fifty 

 truly indigenous flowering plants, about forty are peculiar 

 to St. Helena, and of twenty-six ferns, about ten. The re- 

 lationship of this flora is mainly African, according to Sir 

 Joseph Hooker, whereas Mr. Bentham maintains that the 

 Compositae have their affinities for the most part with South 

 America, Sixteen species of ferns are common to St. Helena 



