28 llEV, T. A. MARSHALL — CORYNODINOETJM KECENSIO. 



Celebes, beyond wbich the present state of our knowledge does 

 not permit us to follow tbem. The few African species which 

 have been brought to Europe inhabit the southern half of the 

 African continent, from Senegambia on the west, to the territories 

 of the Imam of Maskat on the east, opposite to Madagascar. O. 

 Dejeanii, Grerst., has been brought by Peters from Mozambique. 

 Dejeanii, Drege, in Dej. Cat. (another variety of compressicornis, 

 Fab.), is common at the Cape and in Caffraria. A closely allied, 

 but distinct, species of great beauty is from the inland lake 

 Ngami. From the Q-aboon Eiver comes the largest and most 

 splendid of the genus ; and in the same part of the African con- 

 tinent occurs in profusion compressicomis, Fab., as well as one or 

 two blue forms, which resemble somewhat those of India. 



The African species present a constant variation in form from 

 that which obtains among those of Asia ; they have a much longer 

 thorax, narrowed in front, and their elytra are more narrowly 

 oblong. 



It is to be regretted that the island of Madagascar has not been 

 searched for these insects. The occurrence of the Asiatic forms 

 there, with or without the African, may be regarded as possible, 

 and their presence would throw some light upon the supposed 

 early connexion of that island with Asia, in a physical as well as 

 an ethnographical point of view, — a question of the highest in- 

 terest, but at present involved in the most inscrutable mystery. 

 It is at least certain that the botany and other natural productions 

 of Madagascar present strong analogies to those of India and Ma- 

 laysia, and recede in a proportionate degree from the African type, 

 while the facies of the natives, and, above all, irrefragable linguistic 

 proofs drawn from the Malagassee, poiut to a prehistoric connexion 

 of the island with the eastern continent. The hypothesis of a 

 voyage of Malay proas sufficiently explains one portion of the diffi- 

 culty, but leaves the natural-history question still imtouched. 



The second group, consisting of ChrysocTius and its affinities, is 

 represented in Europe, Asia, and North America, but not, so far 

 as we are aware, in Africa, nor in the southern regions of the 

 New "World. The Asiatic forms are by far the most numerous, 

 occurring in almost every part of the continent, from the central 

 plateau of Mongolia to the Malay peninsula, and from the Cau- 

 casus to Japan. The American species have hitherto been brought 

 only from the northern temperate zone ; they are represented (in 

 the collections we have seen) by two or three forms from the Far 

 "West, Oregon, and California, and by an insect common in the 



