246 Transactions.— Zoology. 
attention has been paid to our Polyzoa, the number of known species indicates 
a rich fauna, and, indeed, the entire class seems to be more abundant in the 
southern than in the opposite hemisphere, and, like the petrels, contains many 
forms quite unrepresented in the north. 
INSECTA. 
No New Zealand naturalist who has collected insects on however small a 
scale in Europe, can, I think, fail to be struck with the paucity in New 
Zealand, not only of species, but in some orders of individuals also. It is 
remarkable that in this country, whose indigenous warm-blooded animals are 
limited to birds and bats, on entering the bush instead of finding the masses 
of decaying wood and leaves swarming with life, we find hardly a living 
creature,* while at the same time we are attacked by myriads of blood-thirsty 
mosquitos (Culex acer). It would certainly seem that abundance of food does 
not produce abundance of individuals in some orders (e.g. Coleoptera), neither 
does an absolute dearth of food in the imago state prevent the increase of 
individuals in others (e.g. Diptera). The swarms of sand-flies (Simulium 
cecutiens), also, that greet us on the coast, from the North Cape to the Bluff, 
where could they possibly have found food before the advent of man? Where 
indeed do they find it now in sufficient quantities ? 
Of beetles about 200 species inhabiting the land are described, the 
whole of which, I believe, are found nowhere else. These species are 
distributed into about 110 genera, of which about thirty-five ‘are peculiar 
to New Zealand. A remarkable contrast to this is shown in the water- 
beetles, of which four only are known, two (Cybister hookeri and Colymbetes 
rufimanus) being, I believe, endemic, and the other two (Colymbetes notatus 
and Gyrinus natator) being found in Britain. The genera best represented 
are Elater with twelve, Feronia with eight, Mecodema with nine, Xylotoles 
with seven, Cincidela with six, Anchomenus and Maoria with five each, 
and Coptoma with four species. Few beetles can be called abundant, the 
little green species (Pyronota Jestiva) so destructive to our fruit trees, 
and a small brown species (Colaspis brunnea), common on the manuka 
(Leptospermum) in December and January, are, perhaps, the only two that 
deserve the name, although many can be called common. The beetles as a 
whole are, according to Mr. Pascoe, most closely allied to those of Australia. 
The Hymenoptera are very poorly represented, about eighteen species only 
being as yet known. All are, I believe, endemic. Most of the genera are 
widely spread, but Orectognathus, and Dasycolletes, are peculiar to New 
Zealand. The poorness of our fauna in this order cannot be owing to 
* My experience in this respect in New Zealand is very different to that of Mr. 
allace in Singapore and Borneo, but similar to his in Celebes and Ceram. 
