the StaphyiinicIfB of Japan, 279 



Northeni China, and Korea, so that no usefal purpose would 

 be served by estimating what percentage of the Japanese 

 Coleoptera is at present known from there. A paper has 

 recently been published by Herr Kolbe that gives us some, if 

 only a little, information on the question of the relation 

 between the Coleopterous faunas of Japan and of the other 

 portions of Wallace's Mantchurian subregion. Describing * 

 a small collection of 142 species of Coleoptera made by Dr. 

 Gottsche in Korea, he has entered fully into the question of 

 the geographical relations of the species, and announces that 

 Korea is " faunistically extraordinarily closely related to 

 Japan," 77 out of the 142 species detected there being known 

 as occurring also in Japan. This certainly leads us to infer 

 that a considerable amount of community exists between the 

 two provinces ; but it appears to be by no means so great as 

 might have been expected, for although we have a fair know- 

 ledge of the Coleoptera of the southern islands of Japan, it 

 appears that out of 142 species from the Korea 65, that is 

 nearly 46 per cent., are not known to be Japanese. Kolbe 

 states also that the Korea has more in common with Japan 

 than it has with China; but this is probably connected with 

 the fact that we know so much more of Japanese than we do 

 of Chinese Coleoptera. 



I think it will be admitted that with such imperfect data as 

 we possess we cannot pretend to form any trustworthy esti- 

 mate of the exact relations of the Coleopterous fauna of Japan 

 to those of other provinces. At present what we know seems 

 to indicate a larger amount of endemicity than we should 

 have expected from its geographical position and from its 

 proximity at more than one point to other lands ] its fauna, 

 too, seems to have affinities extending over a wide area, 

 including some undoubted and even striking points of resem- 

 blance with North America and with East India. 



The geographical position of the islands gives their fauna 

 a considerable interest, which is much increased by the fact 

 that the islands themselves are well separated from one 

 another : a comparison of the fauna of the island of Yezo 

 with those'of Nipon, Saghalien, and Mantchuria could not fail 

 to throw light on such questions as the exact relation between 

 endemicity and geographical isolation, and as the correlation 

 between present climatic conditions and the distribution of 

 species ; but for all such purposes it is necessary to have a 

 complete knowledge of the taunas of the various regions 

 involved, and this we are very far from possessing. Mr. 



* Arch. f. Nat. 1886, i. pp. l;]9-240. 



20* 



