156 The Zoologist — Apkil, 1866. 



Species. 



Rhynchophora ..... 282 



Necrophaga . . . . . 219 



Brachelytra . . . . . 215 



Geodephaga ..... 188 



Heleroraera . . . . . '72 



Priocerala . . . . • 136 



Phjtophaga ..... 64 



Coiilylocerata ..... 64 



Pseudoliimera ..... 30 



Philhjdiieia . . . . . 29 



Hydradephaga ..... 29 



Eucerata ..... 22 



1449 



There is nothing more interesting in the Atlantic list of Coleoptera 

 than the absence of certain familiar forms, dominant under very 

 similar conditions in various parts of the globe : thus the family 

 Cetoniidae has no existence at all in Madeira, although it has ten 

 representatives in Canary : the Elaleridae have no existence in 

 Madeira: the Cicindelidte have not a single representative in either of 

 the islands, and the Buprestidae have but one, a unique but truly indi- 

 genous Agrilus captured by Mr. Wollaslon in 1855. The common- 

 place genera, Nebria, Carabus, Silpha, Hispa, Zophosis, Tentyria, 

 Pimelia, Cossypus and Ocypus are absent from Madeira, but well 

 represented in the Canaries. No less than twenty-two species of 

 Coleoptera have been detected in which the eyes are either totally 

 absent or so rudimentary and imperfect as to be practically useless. 



I cannot close this truly instructive volume without glancing at a 

 remarkable feature of the Atlantic fauna, which has a direct and im- 

 portant bearing on a subject on which I have elsewhere expressed 

 very decided opinions : I allude to the rapid extinction of species 

 which is now iu progress all over the earth's surface. The Euphor- 

 biaceae are a natural order of plants widely distributed over the 

 Atlantic Archipelago, and have acquired iu the Canarian group a most 

 marvellous ascendancy; in the Grand Canary large tracts are entirely 

 clothed, with them, and some of them have attained such gigantic 

 stature as to be comparable to gnarled oaks. In the dead and dying 

 stems of these Euphorbiae Coleoptera take up their abode by thousands. 

 Mr. Wollaston discovered no less than fifty species which appear to be 

 exclusively Euphorbia-infesting in their habits, but what struck him as 

 most remarkable was the incredible mass of individuals by which 



