On new Species of Coleoptera from Japan. 459 



LIII. — On certain new Species of Coleoptera from Japan. 

 By George Lewis. 



While recently compiling a catalogue of Japanese Coleoptera, 

 I found in my cabinets a few new species, some of which are 

 of more than ordinary interest ; and I have therefore drawn 

 out the following diagnoses with the object of clearing off old 

 material before starting again to the East. As many authors 

 have shown, the fauna of Nipon consists chiefly of species 

 derived from the same source as those of Northern Asia and 

 Europe ; but it is in part made up also of genera from the 

 tropics, together with a few from the New World. There is 

 more connexion between the fauna of the south of Japan and 

 the Philippine Islands and Borneo than with South China, 

 so far as the researches of entomologists at present lead us ; 

 and this is illustrated in the well-marked genera Nodynus, 

 Xuthia, Ichthyurus, Ischalia, and Prionocerus, noted here. 

 And this is not surprising; for from South Japan, through to 

 Formosa and thus on to Luzon, there is a series of small con- 

 necting islands not far distant from each other. 



The Necydalis described below is of American type ; and 

 it is well to observe that the line of communication afforded 

 by the Aleutian and Kurile Isles brings into Japan just such 

 links from America as we might expect from a broken line 

 of islands. 



Formerly, perhaps, this line was less interrupted or even 

 complete ; but if so, it would appear from the paucity of 

 analogous genera to have been connected only prior to the 

 lifetime of existing races. There is one instance, worth re- 

 cording, of an insect crossing the Pacific by this route ; it is 

 the ever-varying Corymbites lateralis, Leconte, the home of 

 which is, I believe, Vancouver's Island. Then in the genus 

 Penthe, the Japanese is allied to the American, not to the 

 Javan species \ and in the new genus of Necrophaga lately 

 established by Dr. Kraatz, Ptomascopus, there are two species 

 described from Japan and one from China ; yet the second 

 Japanese species is allied to an Amazon insect rather than to 

 either of its fellows in Asia. These instances, which are, 

 however, the exception and not the rule, could be extended 

 considerably did space allow ; but the general result would 

 be left unchanged. It will be an interesting day for those 

 who study the Eastern-Asiatic fauna when a good collection 

 comes from Korea or Saghalien. 



Tachycellus subditus, n. sp. 

 T. elongatus, subovatus, niger, nitidus ; thorace distincte marginato, 



