INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. XXV 



I think that the number which I have recorded, namely 27, will not 

 be found, although thus large, to have been exaggerated. 



Still more remarkable than Helops, because usually less developed 

 in southern countries, is the genus Calaihus of which as many as 

 23 exponents have already been met with. It is however in the 

 Canaries that the Calathi are most dominant, no less than 19 of the 

 above number being peculiar to that archipelago. After Calaihus, 

 the small flower-infesting Malacoderms comprised in the genus 

 Attains* are (as observed hitherto) the most numerous as many as 

 22 species of them, chiefly Canarian, having been detected. Then 

 follow Hegeter ^, Longitarsus, and Dromius^, each of which is 

 represented by 20 members. The first of these, indeed, namely 

 Hegeter (which is principally Canarian), is, like Helops, a very 

 puzzling group the species being singularly variable, and difficult 

 to define. That there are at least, however, ten forms amongst them 

 which were aboriginal I have little doubt ; but whether the remain- 

 der are more than races, well expressed in the central parts of their 

 several districts but shading off towards the upper and lower limits 

 of them, I consider very questionable. 



So far as "has been ascertained up to the present date, Apion and 

 Pliihnthus have each 18 exponents, a large proportion of which 

 however I believe to be mere introductions from higher latitudes. 

 Arthrodes and Anthicus have 15, the former representing in the 

 Canaries (to which it seems to be confined) Erodius of Mediterranean 

 countries. Of Trechus, Bernbidium, and Aplianarihrum 14 species 

 have been brought to light ; but of the last which is an exceedingly 

 interesting little assemblage of minute Euphorbia -infesting wood- 

 borers, widely diffused over these various Atlantic islands (to which, 

 apparently, it is peculiar) we may expect to meet with many 

 others, as yet undetected. In less important genera, Pterostichus 

 and Saprinus are represented by 13 species ; Hydroporus, SpJicericus, 

 and Pimelia (which last does not occur in the Madeiran Group) by 

 12 ; Acrotrichis (i. e. Tricliopteryx), Atomaria, and Corticaria by 11 ; 

 Anobium, Scytnnus, and Lithocharis by 10; Tarus, Cryptophagus, 

 Aphodius, Lichenophagus, Ocypus, and Trogophlceus by 9 ; and Li- 

 parthrum, Caulotrupis (a Madeiran group of Phlceophagous Curcu- 

 lionidce), Lixus, Haltica, Coccinella, and Aleochara by 8. 



* I include Pecteropus amongst the Attali. 



t With Hegeter I include Thalpophila and Gnophota, which are scarcely more 

 than subgeneric groups. 



\ I regard Dromius as including Blcchrus and Metabletus. 



