262 Transactions. — Zoology. 
the character of the soil and by climate, more than by food, especially as 
the very few places throughout the world where they have been found all 
coincide, so far as I know, in having a light soil and warm dry climate, 
Should this prove to be the case, it will open up ‘a wide and interesting field 
for speculation as to the causes which have led to their distribution to such 
remote corners of the globe, and to their limitation to such small and con- 
fined areas. Have they all spread from one centre of creation, or have 
different types been originated in separate areas of development ? Which- 
ever it is, we are pretty sure of this, either that enormous periods of time 
must have elapsed since the first parent stock migrated east and west, to 
such extremes of the world as Jamaica and New Zealand, especially when 
we consider the very indifferent locomotive powers of the species, and its 
extreme reluctance to leave its native home, or, on the other hand, that 
some common power has been at work controlling and directing the develop- 
ment of such marvellously intelligent and skilfully artistic creatures in such 
remote and opposite parts of the globe. 
Art. XXXII.—WNotes on the Coleoptera of Auckland, New Zealand. 
By Captain Brown. 
{Read before the Auckland Institute, 17th May, 1875.] 
Ir has been suggested by C. M. Wakefield, Esq., of Canterbury, that the 
publication of my observations on the Coleoptera of Auckland in the 
“Transactions of the New Zealand Institute” might be the means of dis- 
seminating some desirable information. I confess, however, that I accede 
to the request with diffidence ; but, whilst regretting that no abler entomo- 
logist has relieved me of the task, I trust that my desire to do justice to the 
subject will secure the indulgent consideration of the members of the Insti- 
tute. 
I propose, in this short sketch, to confine my remarks on the beetles of 
this Province to an enumeration of the different families of the order repre- 
sented here, the names of such characteristic species as are known, adding 
some few statements regarding the peculiarities of such as I am_ best 
acquainted with. 
Tadopt this method in the hope that it will induce gentlemen of the 
other Provinces to publish concise accounts of the endemic Coleoptera of 
each division of the Colony, in order that we may obtain a more accurate 
knowledge of this interesting order of insects. 
I have often had occasion to regret that a properly classified collection 
of such of the New Zealand Coleoptera as are known to science is not avail- 
