502 GEOGRAPHICAL ZOOLOGY. [part iv. 



Borneo, Java, Amboyna and South Australia ; Phyton has one 

 species in North America and the other in Ceylon ; Philage- 

 tes has 2 in South Africa, and 1 in Malacca : Toxotus abounds 

 in North America and Europe, with one species away in Mada- 

 gascar. Leptura is also North Temperate, but has a species at 

 the Cape, one at Singapore and a third in Celebes. JS'eci/dalis 

 has species in North and South America, Europe and Australia. 

 Hylotrv/pes has 1 species in North America and Europe, and 1 in 

 Australia ; Leptocera prefers islands, being found only in Ceylon, 

 Madagascar, Bourbon, Batchian, the New Hebrides, New 

 Caledonia and North Australia ; Hathliodes is Australian, with 

 1 species in Ceylon ; Schcenionta has 3 Malayan species, and 1 

 in Natal. Many other cases equally curious could be quoted, 

 but these are sufficient. They cannot be held to indicate any 

 close relation between the distant countries in which species of 

 the same genus are now found, but perhaps serve to remind 

 us that groups of great antiquity, and probably of great extent, 

 have dwindled away, leaving a few surviving relics scattered far 

 and wide, the sole proofs of their former predominance. 



General Observations on the Distribution of Coleoptera. 



We have now passed in review six of the most important and 

 best known groups of the Coleoptera or Beetles, comprising 

 about 2,400 genera, and more than 21,000 species. Although 

 presenting certain peculiarities and anomalies, w r e have found 

 that, on the whole, their distribution is in very close accordance 

 with that of the higher animals. We have seen reason to 

 believe that these great and well-marked groups have a high 

 geological antiquity, and by constantly bearing this fact in mind, 

 we can account for many of the eccentricities of their distribu- 

 tion. They have probably survived changes of physical geo- 

 graphy which have altogether extinguished many of the more 

 highly organised animals, and we may perhaps gain some insight 

 into the bearing of those changes, by considering the cross rela- 

 tions between the several regions indicated by them. On care- 

 fully tabulating the indications given by each of the groups here 

 discussed, I arrive at the following approximate result. The 



