CHAP. XXI.] INSECTS. 491 



region, with one species in Madagascar ; while it has Orthogo- 

 nius, Hexagonia, Macrochilus, and Thyreopterus in common with 

 the Ethiopian region, and is rich in the fine tropical genus, 

 Catascopus. 



The Ethiopian region has 75 peculiar genera, 8 of which are 

 confined to Madagascar. The more important are, — Polyhirma, 

 Graphvptcrus, and Piezia. Anthia is chiefly African, with a 

 few species in India; Ahacetus is wholly African, except a 

 species in Java, and another in South Europe ; and Hypolithus 

 is typically African, but with 7 species in South America and 1 

 in Java. 



The facts of distribution presented by this important family, 

 looked at broadly, do not support any other division of the earth 

 into primary regions than that deduced from a study of the 

 higher animals. The amount of speciality in each of these 

 regions is so great, that no two of them can be properly united ; 

 and in this respect the Carabidae accord wonderfully with the 

 Vertebrates. In the details of distribution there occur many 

 singular anomalies ; but these are not to be wondered at, if we 

 take into consideration the immense antiquity of Coleopterous 

 insects — which existed under specialised forms so far back as the 

 Carboniferous epoch, — the ease with which they may be dispersed 

 as compared with larger animals, and the facilities afforded by 

 their small size, habits of concealment, and often nocturnal habits, 

 for adaptation to the most varied conditions, and for surviving 

 great changes of surface and of the surrounding organic forms. 

 The wonder rather is, not that there are so many, but so few cases 

 of exceptional and anomalous distribution ; and the fact that 

 these creatures, so widely difterent from Vertebrates in organi- 

 sation and mode of life, are yet on the whole subject to the same 

 limitations of range as were found to occur among the higher 

 animals, affords a satisfactory proof that the principles on which 

 our six primary regions are founded, are sound ; and that they 

 are well adapted to exhibit the most interesting facts of geo- 

 graphical distribution, among all classes of animals. 



Much stress has been laid on the fact of a few species of such 

 typical European genera as Carabus, Dromius, and others, being 



