34 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



NOTES ON THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF 

 SOME AUSTRALIAN BUPRESTID.D. 



By C. French, F.L.S., F.R.H.S., Melbourne. 



Part I. — Introductory. 



The subject of geographical distribution being such a vast one, it 

 has occurred to me that I might 'possibly be doing some little good 

 by offering a few notes on the distribution of certain kinds of this 

 most splendid family of beetles. It is with this hope that I venture 

 to place before you a few facts, somewhat imperfect I admit, and to 

 secure, if possible, for our own colony, the publication of many 

 localities for both genera and species of the great group of the 

 Buprestidae, which there are good reasons for believing have not 

 yet been recorded or credited to us as having been captured in 

 Victoria. 



As an example I may refer you to the excellent catalogue of 

 Australian Coleoptera published by my esteemed correspondent, 

 Mr. George Masters, P'.L.S., of Sydney, N.S.W., in which a large 

 number of species are recorded as having been found in New 

 South Wales, Queensland, &c, but instances of the same insects 

 having been taken in Victoria are rare in the extreme, and these 

 omissions are what I wish and hope to supply in the present 

 notes. 



As to the uses of keeping records of observations on the geo- 

 graphical distribution of either plants or animals of any country, 

 I may instance the fact that all scientific zoologists and botanists 

 attach great importance to such matters, as in addition to the 

 great interest centred in such records, it enables the scientific 

 worker to trace the various gradations, and in many cases 

 furnishes a clue to matters that might otherwise be difficult of 

 determination ; also in the elucidation and fixing the position of 

 both genera and species. 



From the splendid work of Alfred Russell Wallace, of London, 

 on the geographical distribution of animals — and for the possession 

 of which I am indebted to the author, who kindly made me a 

 present of one of the earliest issues of the two handsome volumes 

 so well known to scientists — we shall see what views are held by 

 this celebrated naturalist on the geographical distribution of 

 insects. Winged insects, Mr. Wallace says, as a whole, have per- 

 haps more varied means of dispersal over the globe than any 

 other organized animals. Many of them can fly immense dis- 

 tances, and the more delicate ones are liable to be carried by 

 storms and hurricanes over a wide expanse of ocean. They are 

 often met with far out at sea. Hawk Moths frequently fly on 

 board ships as they approach the shores of tropical countries, 

 and they have sometimes been captured more than 250 miles 

 from the nearest land. Dragon Flies came on board the 



