296 BihltograpMcal Notices. 



bably no great resxilts would be obtained from them. The materials 

 at Mr. Wollaston's disposal were, however, sufficient to bring out 

 some very interesting results. 



The first of these is, that the relative proportions of the different 

 great groups of Coleoptera in these remote islands is nearly the 

 same as in the more fmitful regions of the Madeiran and Canarian 

 groups, with the exception that the Heteromera and Rhynchophora 

 exactly change places in the series, and that the Eucerata (Longi- 

 corns) are, as far as o\ir author is aware, entirely unrepresented. 

 The comparative inferiority of the Ehynchophora may perhaps be 

 due, as Mr. WoUaston seems to think, to the improvident destruction 

 of the timber by the inhabitants ; and the same cause would also, to 

 a great extent, account for the absence of the Longicorn Beetles. 

 Considering the arid nature of the islands, it is a little remarkable 

 that whilst the Philhydrida and Hydradephaga hold the same rela- 

 tive position in the numerical scale, their actual proportion to the 

 whole number of species is greater in the Cape Verde than in the 

 more northern islands ; for we have 7 Hydradephaga and 6 water- 

 loving Philhydrida in the former, against 29 and 20 in the latter, 

 the totals being about in the proportion of 28 to 145. 



Nor is it only in these statistical results that the two sets of islands, 

 which Mr. WoUaston has subjected to examination, agree ; even the 

 exponents of Coleopterous groups, although not very frequently 

 identical, are generally so nearly allied that Mr. WoUaston seems to 

 think that it would be most natural to regard the fauna of aU the 

 islands as forming a whole, differing in certain details in the more 

 distant islands, but characterized throughout by a similarity of type. 

 Thus, although the predominance of Heteromera would seem at first 

 sight to indicate that nearer African relationship which might be 

 inferred from the position of the islands, we find on inspection of 

 the list that the types are, for the most part, like those of the more 

 northern islands. It is to be observed, however, that, notwith- 

 standing this simUarity of the types which are represented in the 

 Cape Yerdes to those prevaiUng in the more northern clusters, Mr. 

 WoUaston remarks upon the total absence in the former of types 

 highly characteristic of the latter. This, however, as he points out, 

 is probably the result of distance, assisted perhaps by the breaking 

 up of the province into such a number of smaU islands. 



Of truly tropical forms Mr. WoUaston enumerates only three, 

 namely, Dineutus cereus, Diplognatha gagates, and Aspklomorpha 

 cincta. 



Of the species enumerated by Mr. WoUaston a great number seem 

 to occupy the same position in relation to other known species which 

 characterized so many of those catalogued by him in his former 

 work ; that is to say, they differ so sUghtly that, but for the differ- 

 ence of habitat, they woidd perhaps hardly be regarded as species. 

 AU these are carefuUy indicated by Mr. WoUaston in his geogra- 

 phical table by means of arrows leading to the name of the probable 

 derivative species ; and it wiU be a task for some Darwinist here- 

 after to work carefuUy over Mr. WoUaston's indications of this 



