1863.] MR. H.W. BATES ON INSECTS FROM MADAGASCAR. 473 



dagascar,' a treatise read before the Konigliche Akademie der Wis- 

 senschaften of Berlin in 1832; and the other, Boisduval's 'Faune 

 Entomologique de Madagascar,' &c., published in 1833. The former 

 described little more than 200 Coleoptera ; and the latter is confined 

 to a portion of the Lepidoptera. The bulk of Goudot's collections, 

 including all the striking and peculiar forms, seems to have been dis- 

 tributed chiefly amongst amateurs, who described the species irre- 

 gularly in different French periodicals ; many, however, have been 

 systematically described in general monographs of families by various 

 French authors. Since Goudot's time a few small collections made 

 by Coquerel and others have arrived in France. The reopening of 

 the island to Europeans has not yet produced results satisfactory to 

 entomologists, as scarcely any of the rarer and more striking species 

 collected by Goudot have been rediscovered. 



The peculiarities of the Mammal fauna of Madagascar are so well 

 known to zoologists that it is almost superfluous to mention them 

 here. Such are the absence of Pithecoide Monkeys, Pachyderms 

 (with the exception of one species at least of Wild Hog), Solidungula, 

 Ruminants, and Felidce, groups so richly represented in the adjoining 

 continent, — and on the other hand, the presence of numerous genera 

 and species of Lemurs unknown in every other part of the world, 

 with two or more peculiar genera of Viverridce, constituting, as far 

 as is known, the small stock of Carnivora which the island possesses. 

 The fauna, however, has been systematically treated only as far as 

 birds are concerned, Dr. Hartlaub having contributed a special work 

 on the subject. According to this learned ornithologist, the bird- 

 population of Madagascar is in the highest degree peculiar. Dr. 

 Hartlaub even goes so far as to deny any close relationship between 

 it and continental Africa, hinting that its connexion lies rather with 

 South-eastern Asia. The statistics given are certainly very striking : 

 thus out of the total number of 202 birds no less than 96 species and 

 29 genera are peculiar to the island, 42 species only being common 

 to it and continental Africa. The number of characteristic African 

 groups wanting in Madagascar supplies almost a parallel to the case 

 of the Mammalia. The facts which have suggested to him an Indian 

 alliance are the existence in Madagascar and Mauritius of four Indian 

 genera and three or four species, besides six other genera which, 

 although peculiar to Madagascar, bear the stamp of Indian and Au- 

 stralian rather than of African origin. 



An analysis of the Insect fauna, at least of eleven of the better- 

 worked families or tribes in the orders Lepidoptera and Coleoptera, 

 has yielded me the following results : — Out of 282 species (being all 

 that have been described irom the island, of the 11 groups), 221 

 species and 26 genera are peculiar to Madagascar ; whilst 48 species 

 only are common to the island and the continent. Thus there is a 

 much larger proportion of species of insects than of birds peculiar to 

 the island, and a somewhat smaller proportion common to it and Africa 

 — a result which may perhaps be due to the more limited powers of 

 locomotion of insects than of birds. The generic peculiarity of the 

 island is perhaps not quite so strikingly exhibited in insects as in 



