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 pavicity in New 

 Zealand, not only of species, but in some orders of individuals also. It is 

 remarkable that m 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 {Gulex acer). It would certainly seem that abundance of food does 

 not produce abundance of individuals in some orders (e.g. Goleoptera), 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 {Simuliurti 

 ccecutiens), 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 {Cyhister hooheri and Colymhetes 

 rujinianus) 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 /estiva) so destructive to our fruit trees, 

 and a small brown species {Colaspis hrunnea), common on the manuka 

 {Leptospermuni) 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 

 beiug as yet know^n. 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. 

 Wallace in Singapore and Borneo, but similar to his in Celebes and Coram. 



