Brown.—On ihe Coleoptera of Auckland , New Zealand. 263 
able to the entomological student of Auckland. I am now, however, so 
far as the means at my command will permit, preparing such a collection 
as will materially aid in providing that desideratum. Some two years ago 
I forwarded a case of New Zealand Coleoptera to Dr. Sharp, the entomolo- 
gist of Dumfrieshire, and, perhaps, I may be permitted to quote from some 
of his letters to me on the subject. In one he states :—‘ I have received 
your box, which contains about one hundred and sixty species, by far the 
greater number of which are unknown to science, and therefore undescribed.” 
In another, dated the 18th September last, he informs me :—‘ I am pack- 
ing up your lot of Coleoptera, named, so far as I have been able to accomp- 
lish it. As regards the Curculionidae, I have failed to identify more than 
afew species. Mr, Wollaston has described the Cossonides, and as there were, 
amongst your lot, two specimens of a very interesting new genus of the 
group, he has described them under the name of Mesowenophasis brouni.” On 
the arrival of that case of insects I shall deposit in the Museum duplicates 
of all that have been named. I afterwards forwarded two other cases of 
beetles to the same gentleman, containing about nine hundred specimens of 
upwards of one hundred species, and have no doubt the result will be 
equally satisfactory. 
I have also corresponded with Captain Hutton, F.L.S., of the Dunedin 
Museum, on the subject, and he, having intimated his desire to assist me, 
I sent him nearly fifteen hundred specimens, on 5th January last, for dis- 
tribution amongst such entomologists in England as might be willing to 
undertake the task of naming and describing them, stipulating that. one 
named individual of each species should be returned to me in order that I 
might place duplicates of these also in the Museum. I am indebted to Mr. 
Wakefield for much valuable assistance, as also a collection of about a 
hundred of such species as occur in Canterbury or other of the Middle 
Island Provinces, which will enable me to institute a comparison with ours. 
I may premise the details of my subject by the observation that, in com- 
parison with the Coleoptera of India, and particularly Burmah, where I 
collected, in the year 1857, those of this country must ever appear insigni- 
ficant as to size, and singularly destitute of the brilliant metallic colours so 
characteristic of the order ; nevertheless, our beetles are by no means to be 
despised, as they exhibit a variety of forms that will always prove a source 
of interest to the studious, and, I may add, of pleasure, even to those who 
display but little inclination to study the works of the Creator, as exhibited 
by this beautiful order of insects. 
Taking the different classes in rotation, we have, first of all, the 
GEODEPHAGA. 
The predaceous ground-beetles are divided into two distinct groups or 
