THE COLTDIID^ OF JAPAN. 59 



tkia*, Pycnomerus, Philothermios, and Oerylon — must be con- 

 sidered as widely distributed. Eour others — Neotrichus, Tere- 

 dolcemus, Leptoglyplms, and Ectomicrus — are found in Ceylon as 

 well as in Japan ; while one, Trionus, occurs in Japan, Ceylon, 

 and India. Four — Itliris, Gempylodes, Erotylathris, and Bas- 

 tarcus t — may be looked on as more or less peculiar to the Austro- 

 Malay region ; and the remaining genus, Endophloeiis, is charac- 

 teristic at present of the Nearctic and Palsearctic regions. 



From these data it would seem that the Colydiidae of Japan 

 are more allied to those of Ceylon than to those of any other 

 region; and this conclusion is strengthened by the fact that 

 several other species and genera find their nearest known allies 

 in Ceylon. On the other hand, it must be borne in mind that 

 we know next to nothing of the Colydiidso of China and India, 

 and that it is very probable that many of the resemblances 

 between the Ceylonese and Japanese forms may prove to be 

 instances of relationships between forms widely distributed in 

 Eastern Asia. All that we are entitled then to conclude at pre- 

 sent is, that there is but slight afiinity between the European 

 and Japanese Colydiidae ; that there is a considerably greater 

 relationship with Ceylon ; and that there may probably be really 

 a wide distribution in the Oriental region of the forms common 

 to these two provinces. 



The Colydiidse being, as previously remarked, insects of small 

 size and very retiring habits, we of course as yet know but few of 

 the forms actually existing in the world ; the classification of the 

 family therefore is in a rudimentary and unsatisfactory condition, 

 I have in the main followed the arrangement of Erichson (Nat. 

 Deutsch. Ins. iii.), except that his group Colydiini miist be sup- 

 pressed, as founded on erroneous observation. Horn (Proc. 

 Am. Phil. Soc. xvii. p. 555 et seq.), in his Synopsis of the 

 Colydiidse of the United States, has proposed to retain the group 



* Xuthia, Pascoe, appears to be not sufficiently different from Eulachus, 

 which itself is so near to Bitoma that its suppression has been proposed by 

 Horn and Leconte, but the latter course I think premature as yet. 



t This genus has recently been redescribed as new by Fairmaire under the 

 name Pathoder7nws (Ann. Soc. Bnt. Fr. 1881, p. 79); although some of M. Fair- 

 maire's supposed new species of it, six in number, are no doubt synonymous with 

 some of the previously described Dastard, yet others are no doubt new, and we 

 learn from these that the genus extends in the west as far as Syria and Zanzibar ; 

 still it must be treated at present as chiefly an Oriental genus. 



5* 



