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XXVIII. On the Geographical Relations of the Coleoptera of Old Calabar 
By Andrew Murray, Mq., F.L.S., Assist. Sec. Ko>/. Hort. Soc. 
Read February 6th, 1862. 
1HE late Prof. Edward Eorbes's speculation or theory that the South-American 
continent was at one time united or in close proximity to Western Africa, in the 
direction of the Sargasso Sea, has met with very general favour and acceptance; but 
the paper on the Orchidaceae of Fernando Po, lately read to this Society by Dr. Lindley, 
and other recent observations show that much evidence is still needed before it can be 
said to be established. As a small contribution to the determination of this question 
and its collateral issues (such as the former points of junction or of greatest proximity 
of the two continents, and the lines by which the allied faunae and flora? have been 
dispersed), I shall lay before the Society a few memoranda relating to the geographic*] 
affinities of the Coleoptera of Old Calabar, a part of West Africa of which comparatively 
little is known, and which I have had favourable opportunities of studying through the 
kindness of the Scottish missionaries who have established themselves there. 
I shall not attempt here to enter into an examination or description of the entire Co- 
leopteran fauna of Old Calabar. That task I have already commenced in a work partially 
published, and which, although for the present interrupted by more engrossing duties, 
I trust ere long to resume. On the present occasion I shall limit my notice to a few 
illustrations of the more remarkable affinities which I have observed between the Co- 
leoptera of Old Calabar and those of other countries, and, in doing so, shall refrain 
from noticing many species to which I could have referred as allied, when their form or 
genus could also be said to be generally distributed over the whole world. 
1. As to America, and more especially South America. 
The first I shall particularly notice is Galerita—an American genus comprising 
upwards of forty species, of which nine-tenths are found in America, most of them in 
the United States, some in California, some in the West Indies, others in Brazil, &c, and 
so southward to Monte Video. The northern species have a red thorax and black or 
dark-blue elytra. As we go southwards, species are found with the colour of the thorax 
darker or black, and its shape narrower. In Caraccas and the West India Islands, 
the species G. unicolor found there has a black, narrow thorax, with blue elytra; and 
G. Zacordairei, found at Monte Video, is wholly black. I have four species of this genus 
from Old Calabar, all black, and all having the elongated thorax, &c, of the South- 
American species ; one of these species is found also in Senegal. The American species 
Galerita unicolor is contrasted with my Old-Calabar species Galerlta femoralis in 
PI. XLVII. figs. 1 and 1 a. There are only two Asiatic species ; so that the inference 
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