280 Dr. D. Sharp on 



Lewis has probably obtained somewhere between 50 and 80 

 per cent, of the beetles of Japan ; but Yezo has been compa- 

 ratively neglected, and of the Coleoptera of Saghalien and 

 the Kurile Islands we know really nothing, whilst our know- 

 ledge of the beetles of the adjacent parts of the continent of 

 Asia is quite rudimentary. 



One of the points that has seemed to occasion some surprise 

 is the occurrence in Japan of forms we were previously only 

 acquainted with from the eastern tropics ; but this is probably 

 due to our great ignorance as to the fauna of extreme eastern 

 Asia. In most other parts of the northern hemisphere, as is 

 indeed well known, the tropical fauna is separated from that 

 of the temperate regions by intervening zones of barren 

 country, very different in climate and in capacity for sup- 

 porting life from the regions adjacent to them. In the extreme 

 east of Asia there seems to be no such barrier to the spread 

 of tropical forms of life into temperate regions, or of temperate 

 forms into tropical regions, and such information as we possess 

 about this region seems to show that a great mixture exists. 

 Bates has already pointed out that there is a large tropical 

 element in the Coleoptera of Japan ; and Fairmaire tells us * 

 of Yunnan, far to the south, that there is a great mingling of 

 European genera with tropical forms ; and S^menow again, 

 in remarking t on the Coleoptera collected in China and 

 Mongolia by Potanin, says that three faunas are represented, 

 one of them eminently paleearctic. At present therefore it 

 appears very doubtful whether in this part of the world any 

 natural separation between Palaearctic and Oriental regions 

 exists. 



In the present paper I have not included the names of all 

 the species of Japanese Staphylinidas, those that have been 

 recorded in my previous paper on the subject (Trans. Ent. 

 Soc. 1874, pp. 1-103) only being mentioned when I have 

 some addition or correction to make. I have, however, inclu- 

 ded the names of all other species that I know of as recorded 

 from the islands ; so that this and the paper just mentioned 

 give a complete list of Japanese Staphylinidee up to this date. 



* Ann. Soc. ent. Belg. 1887, p. 87. 

 t Hor. Soc. ent. Ross. xxi. p. 390. 



