Species of New-Zealand Coleoptera. 2J1 



them great pests to the agriculturist, with more, than 200 

 Australian species, has only three or four in New Zealand, 

 and those belonging to three microtjpal genera. Of the 

 entomology of the numerous islands north and north-east of 

 New Zealand we know very little, except that it includes some 

 isolated forms. (2) That out of about, in round numbers, 

 180 genera of Coleoptera, about 50 are peculiar to New Zea- 

 land, and about 50 are either almost cosmopolitan or also found 

 in middle Europe [mostly British] ; the remainder have re- 

 presentatives in Australia, the Malayan archipelago, Japan, 

 Madagascar, North and South America, Africa, &c, but not 

 in Europe. In the other orders of insects European forms 

 are mostly represented. No one genus, I believe, is peculiai 

 to New Zealand, except amongst the Lepidoptera *. From 

 these considerations, I think that the New-Zealand fauna (for 

 insects at least) cannot be regarded as belonging to the primary 

 Australian region, but that it is a secondary or " satellite " 

 region, having too many endemic forms and too many repre- 

 sentatives (out of all proportion to the rest) of widely distri- 

 buted genera, and yet subsidiary to a certain extent to the 

 Australian, inasmuch as it approaches it in a very marked 

 manner in possessing several peculiar forms, as we have 

 already statedf. 



Some caution must be exercised in regard to introduced 

 species. New Zealand, it has been observed, seems to have 

 a slight hold on its animal and plant life ; and, conversely, 

 introduced species seem to do well. In that category I 

 believe I may place the Australian Cyttalia grisevpila (ante, 

 xi. p. 195), or at least a form so closely allied that I hesitate 

 to place it as a distinct species ; it is found very commonly on 

 a plant called the " Spaniard," whatever that may be. An 

 O nthopJiaguS) apparently identical with the Australian O.fulvo- 



* Mr. Butler, in the recently completed ' Zoology of the Voyage of 

 H.M.S. Erebus and Terror' [Janson], enumerates 318 species of Lepi- 

 doptera. A few genera, for the present at least, may be assumed to be 

 peculiar. 



t Mr. Murray, in his paper "On the Geographical Relations of the 

 chief Coleopterous Faunae " (Journ. Linn. Soc. xi. pp. 1 et seqq.), seeks 

 to establish three great " stirpes" to which all the Coleoptera in the world 

 are referable, viz. — i. the Indo-African ; ii. the Brazilian ; and iii. the 

 " microtypal." To the first of these, inter alia, belongs the New-Guinea 

 group, and to the last Australia and New Zealand, including also the 

 temperate regions of the globe as well as tropical Peru. While I agree 

 with Mr. Murray in regarding the beetle-fauna of New Guinea as totally 

 different in character from that of Australia, I look upon the latter as 

 being peculiarly distinct and isolated. If we knew any thing of the 

 entomology of the southern part of New Guinea and more of the district 

 of Cape York, the gap which now exists might be somewhat lessened. 



