300 Mr. T. V. Wollaston on the Coleoptera of St. Helena. 



" doubtful," the majority of which, however, have most likely 

 been, through various causes, naturalized : — 



Pristonychua complanatus. Stenoscelis hylastoides. 



Dactylosternum abdomiaale. Bruchus rufobruiineus. 



Spliferidium dytiscoides. advena. 



Cryptamorpha musfe. Aspidomorpha miliaris. 



Tribalus 4-striatus. Epilachna chrysomelina. 



Sapi-inus laiitus. Zopliobas concolor. 

 Toniicus aemulus. 



If it be permissible, from material so limited as that which 

 has hitherto been amassed, to build up a rough estimate of the 

 true Coleopterous population of St. Helena, it is clear that the 

 twenty-six "cosmopolitan" species, which have manifestly 

 followed in the wake of mere commerce and civilization, must 

 be altogether set aside ; and in that case, giving the thirteen 

 more or less equivocal ones the advantage of the doubt, we 

 should have forty-eight to represent the aboriginal (and evi- 

 dently much reduced) fauna of this remote deteriorated island. 

 When commenting, in 1861, on even the fourteen species 

 which had been collected by Mr. Bewicke, I called attention 

 to the extraordinary fact that not only did the weevils number 

 nearly two-thirds of the entire batch, but were likewise 

 all of them endemic, hoth as regards species and genus ! 

 whilst certainly three, if not indeed more, out of the remaining 

 six (belonging to other families) possess a wide geographical 

 range. This led me to remark that the CurcuUonidce would, 

 in all probability, be found to play a most important part in 

 the Coleopterous fauna of St. Helena ; and I then expressed 

 my belief, from the mere diversity of configuration presented 

 by the five species of Microxylohius which had been brought 

 to light, that the members of that abnormal little group would 

 almost certainly be ascertained to be locally abundant, and, 

 " since the same might be urged with no less force for that 

 extraordinary genus Notioxenus,^ that there was " every reason 

 to suspect that the Rhynchophora of this mountain-island are, 

 in proportion to its size, both numerous and eccentric." 



I have thought it worth while to allude to these casual ob- 

 servations of my own, because they have been so strictly and 

 literally verified. Not only have Microxylohius and Notioxenus 

 been augmented by newly discovered exponents, but every- 

 thing tends to prove that they are immeasm-ably the most 

 significant of the island forms : indeed an undescribed and 

 closely related genus has been detected alongside the latter, as 

 though still further to enhance the local importance of that 

 particular Anthribideous type. Scarcely less characteristic, 

 however, than even these three, are, perhaps, the obscure Cur- 



