456 dr, f. b. white on the [May 7, 



island. Most of these genera, in addition to being Miocene and of 

 very wide distribution, are characteristic Palsearctic genera at the 

 present time. Amongst the peculiar genera many have their 

 affinities (and, hence, probable ancestry) with Palsearctic genera ; 

 while in the North-Atlantic islands there seems to me to be more 

 evidence of alliance with St. Helena than Mr. Wollaston was inclined 

 to admit. Mr. Murray (whose line of migration, in part, at leasi, 

 coincides, as will have been noticed, with mine — he arguing, however, 

 for continuity of land) was decidedly in favour of affinity with the 

 North-Atlantic islands ; and his knowledge of Coleoptera was, it 

 must be allowed, so extensive as to require his opinion to be received 

 with attention. It is true that since he wrote on the subject our 

 knowledge of the St.-Helenian Coleoptera has been immensely 

 increased ; but so far as I cau see, nothing has been found to invali- 

 date (but rather to increase) the argument in favour of such alliance. 

 Taking Mr. Murray's abstract 1 of the Coleoptera of the North- 

 Atlantic islands, we have in Madeira 266 endemic species against 

 120 aboriginal European species, the endemic species being all akin 

 to European forms. Then in the Canaries we find that, out of a 

 total of 930, 224 species are identical with Madeiran, the peculiar 

 characters of the Madeiran fauna being there in force. Next come 

 the Cape-Verd Islands, of which Mr. Wollaston says, " Our recent 

 explorations in the Cape-Verdes have shown their coleopterous 

 population to be so far more than I had anticipated on the Canarian 

 and Madeiran type, that I am any thing but certain that it would not 

 be more natural to regard the whole of these Atlantic islands as 

 characterized by a single fauna unmistakably the same, even whilst 

 necessarily differing as to many of its exact details (and through the 

 fact of mere distance) in the more widely separated groups." 



In fact we find in the three archipelagos just what might have 

 been expected. As we move southwards the same general character 

 of the fauna is found to be present, but the particulars gradually 

 alter. And this, it seems to me, is apparent even when St. Helena 

 is reached. Making due allowance for its remoteness and different 

 latitude, the character of the fauna is the same, though the details 

 are very considerably altered. For example, in Madeira we have 

 the Heteromerous genera Hadrus and Hegeter, with 3 and 1 species 

 respectively ; in the Canaries Hadrus has vanished, but Hegeter has 

 no less than ] 9 species ; in the Cape-Verds Hegeter has almost 

 disappeared, having but a single species, but its place has been taken 

 by a new genus, Oxycara, with 10 species ; in St. Helena all these 

 genera have vanished, but are represented by two new and allied 

 genera — Hadrodes and Tarphiophasis, regarding the first of which 

 Mr. Wollaston remarks that it has a good deal in common with the 

 Madeiran Hadrus. Tarphiophasis too seems evidently a develop- 

 ment of Hadrodes, just as the latter is of Hadrus. Then, again, Mr. 

 Wollaston remarks of the St.-Helenian Opatrum hadroides that it 

 is closely allied to species from the Cape-Verd, Canarian, and 

 Madeiran archipelagos, and is even more akin to one, and probably 



1 L. c. p. 12 &c. 



