Mr. T. V. Wollaston on the Coleoptera of St. Helena. 301 



culionideous groups Nesiotes and TrachypJilceosoina ; and, if in- 

 deed it be truly aboriginal (and there is no reason for suspect- 

 ing the contrary), that curious little blind Cossonid, the Pent- 

 ar thrum subccecum, may be added to the number, in which 

 case the Rhynchophoy-a alone would monopolize no less than 

 six of the most anomalous endemic genera ! Indeed the only 

 other manifestly indigenous forms which I should define as 

 par excellence " abnormal " are Haplothorax of the Carabidfe, 

 and perhaps MeUissius of the Lamellicorns, neither of which, 

 however, are so eccentric in their structure as the six Rhyn- 

 chophorous ones to which I have just alluded. 



Apart^ however, from their singularity of type, it may be 

 useful, in order to illustrate the mere numerical preponderance 

 of the weevils (as regards both species and genus) in the 

 St.-Helena catalogue, to distribute the forty-eight members of 

 the fauna (to which I have already called attention) under the 

 twelve great sections into which the Coleoptera are usually 

 supposed to arrange themselves. I am well aware that the 

 paucity of the list itself, and perhaps likewise the totally un- 

 explored state of the pools and streams, may be sufficient to 

 account for many an apparent anomaly — such as, for instance, 

 the complete absence of the water-beetles and Brachelytra ; 

 but still, after making every allowance for the manifest im- 

 perfection of the material, the broad fact does undoubtedly 

 remain that the researches of Messrs. Melliss, Bewicke, and 

 others (and that, too, whilst by no means neglecting the mi- 

 nuter groups) have Isrought to light more representatives of 

 the Hhynchophora than of all the other departments combined. 

 And that this is truly the case, a glance at the following table 

 will suffice to show : — 



Rhynchophora 26 



Cordjlocerata {i. e. Lamellicorns <fec.) 6 



Geodephaga 5 



Heteromera 3 



Philhydrida 2 



Phytophaga 2 



Pseudotrimera 2 



Necrophaga 1 



Priocerata 1 



Hydradephaga 



Brachelytra 



Eucerata 



48* 



* It is scarcely necessary to consicler what would be the result were 

 the whole seventy-four species wliicli are enumerated in the present list 

 distributed under these twelve primary departments, because (as already 



