XIV 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 



forms as Tarpliius and the Laparoceri), this appears to be the right 

 place for a remark on which I would desire to lay considerable stress. 

 Of the 1449 species here registered, it will be seen from the Topo- 

 graphical Index that 1039 (or all those in italics) are treated as 

 peculiar to the islands, whilst the remaining 410 are looked upon as 

 known elsewhere (chiefly in central and southern Europe, or northern 

 Africa). I need scarcely add, however, that that number (1039) must 

 be greatly reduced if we would gain an approximate idea of the species 

 which are absolutely endemic in these oceanic Groups ; for many of 

 them will doubtless be found in Mediterranean countries, and a cer- 

 tain proportion may -possibly be but geographical modifications of 

 species (the names of which I have usually indicated within brackets, 

 prefixing to them an -* ) which are found in higher latitudes. 

 Hence, the italics merely imply that the species which are entered in 

 that particular type have not hitherto been recorded, so far as I am 

 aware, except for these islands ; but they do not indicate my belief 

 that so large an amount of the species are necessarily peculiar to the 

 archipelago *. 



But since a very considerable number of the forms are most un- 

 mistaJceably aboriginal being either attached to particular plants 

 which do not grow in other regions, or belonging to types which are 

 manifestly insular, it seems desirable in a tabular catalogue to note 

 all such by some simple mark ; and I have, therefore, prefixed to 

 them an asterisk (*). So that whilst every species which is italicized 

 will bear the character imposed upon it (seeing that / have not been 

 able to ascertain that it has hitherto been recorded elsewhere), and 

 whilst also many both of those ivhich are italicized and those which 

 are not appear to be truly indigenous, it is only those to which an 

 asterisk is additionally appended that I would regard as (par excel- 

 lence) endemic, and therefore not likely to be found in any other 

 country. The number of these last-mentioned species, which may 

 be called " wfam-indigenous " (as being the very avTo^doves of the 

 soil), appears to be about 700. And hence we may arrive at the 

 conclusion that, of the 1449 species which have been observed (up 

 to the present time) in these three oceanic Groups, nearly one-half 



* After the above explanation, it will not appear absurd that in a very few 

 (exceptional) instances even undoubtedly imported insects (such as the Tthizopertha 

 bifoveolata and the Adelina farinaria, which are probably American) should be 

 inserted in italics. The fact is, I have no means of knowing absolutely that they 

 have yet been met with in any other country ; and therefore I had no choice but 

 to italicize them. Yet it is quite certain, nevertheless, that they do not belong, 

 in reality, to the Atlantic fauna at all. 



