l86 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [J"ne, 



Geographical Distribution of the Carabidae. 



By F. M. Webster, Wooster, Ohio. 



In the " Popular Science Monthly," vol. xlii, p, 191, Decem- 

 ber, 1892, Mr. Henry A. Pilsby, in speaking of the more complex 

 obstructing mechanism in many of the snails of the Southern 

 States and South America, and, citing especially, Caracolas laby- 

 rinthus, from Panama, says: "These Southern forms represent 

 the highest development of the three-toothed type of aperture. 

 The meaning of this increasing complexity appears, when we 

 remember that the regions where the most complicated types of 

 snails are found, are known to be practically coincident with the 

 regions producing carnivorous Coleoptera in the. greatest num- 

 bers and in the most exuberant variety of forms." 



The above statements are considerably at variance with what I 

 had supposed to be the generally accepted opinion, among ento- 

 mologists, and is quite contrary to my own observations, though 

 these have been somewhat limited. Wollaston, in his work " On 

 the Variation of Species with Especial Reference to the Insecta," 

 p. 28, states that ' ' The great preponderance of the phytopha- 

 gous over the predaceous tribes, in the hotter regions of the 

 earth, is a remarkable fact, and strongly suggestive of the rela- 

 tion which the insect and vegetable worlds (both of which attain 

 their maximum in those zones) bear to each other." Further- 

 more, Mr. Darwin, who had previously remarked this fact ("Jour- 

 nal of Researches, " p. 34) says that "the carnivorous beedes, or 

 Carabidae, appear in extremely few numbers within the tropics. 

 The carrion feeders and Brachelytra are very uncommon ; on the 

 other hand, the Rhynchophora and Chrysomelidae, all of which 

 depend on the vegetable world for subsistence, are present in 

 astonishing numbers." 



In his list of the Coleoptera of New Zealand, Capt. Thomas 

 Brown gives the names of 148 species of Carabidae and 299 of 

 Rhynchophora. A week's observation in the vicinity of Hobart, 

 Tasmania, in mid-Summer, illustrated, quite forcibly, the simi- 

 larity of the coleopterous fauna with that of New Zealand, as re- 

 gards to the matter in question. While I observed Rhyncho- 

 phora and Chrysomelidae in abundance, very few Carabidae were 

 seen. True, these islands lay within the temperate zone, but 

 tlieir climate is sub-tropical, like that of extreme southern United 



