538 Proceedings of tJie Royal Irish Acddemy. 



In the case of species which are of general distribution we have 

 merely given the provinces ; where the records indicate a less general 

 distribution of a common species we have added the counties, and 

 where the species is rare, or local, we have specified the actual locali- 

 ties with references to captors and records. 



In spite of the paucity of workers, and the well-known deficiencies 

 of the Irish fauna, as compared with that of Great Britain, we are 

 able to catalogue some 1630 species of beetles, or less than half the 

 number ali'eady recorded from the British Isles. So similar is our 

 coleopterous fauna to that of Great Britain and western Europe, that 

 we do not know of any species peculiar to this country. The nearest 

 approach to such an insect is the interesting form Silpha sulrotundata, 

 which, in our opinion, replaces the type {S. atrata) in Ireland. It 

 has been recorded from the Isle of Man, doubtfully from England, and 

 not at all from the Continent, so that we are justified in regarding it 

 as a characteristic Irish insect. A somewhat similar case is that of 

 the weevil Rhopalomesites Tardyi which is more generally abundant 

 in the Irish area than in any other of its known localities. The 

 species found in Ireland, and not elsewhere in the British Isles, are 

 also few in number. So far as we are aware, they are the following : — 

 Dyscliirius ohscurus, Bembidium aryenteoliim,^ Stenus aryentellus, ^an- 

 tholinus cribripennis, and Otiorrhynclms aiiropimctatus, besides a few 

 varieties of other species. It is a noteworthy fact, that the three 

 first-mentioned species were discovered on the shores of Lough I^eagh, 

 a locality which has produced many interesting plants and animals, 

 rare, or unknown in other parts of the country. 



A study of the Irish beetle fauna shows that it is made up of 

 various groups of species which may be recognised by means of their 

 European range. Some of these are of little interest as regards distri- 

 bution, while others are just the opposite. Such species as Carabus 

 gramdatus and Bytiscus marginalis, being common throughout the 

 British Isles and the Palsearctic region, possess little interest from a 

 distributional standpoint. A large proportion, however, of our native 

 species are more or less local, and may be grouped according to the 

 areas which they inhabit in the Palsearctic region at the present day. 

 So far as Ireland is concerned, at least three main groups may be 

 pointed out. 



The fii'st of these groups consists of species which range over 

 central Europe and the Mediterranean region, but are rare or wanting 



' Bembidium, aryenteolum, Xantholimis cribripennis, and Stenns argentelhis are 

 recorded as British, species for the first time in the following list. 



