52 Procee(Hnffs of the Roi/al Irish Academy. 



Similar geographical relationships are showu from the studies of \'aiioiis 

 groups of insects and other terrestrial Arthropoda from the Seychelles, as 

 recorded in the Eeports of the Tercv Sladeu Trust Expedition (Gardiner and 

 others, '07-1-i). 



Taking the Coleoptera (heetles) we find that, in his review of the Seychelles 

 Curculionidae {pp. c. Y (XYl), pp. 393-497),' Champion mentions that out of 

 134 species, 100 are endemic, and the rest introduced, or showing affinity 

 to African, Malagasy, or Ceylonese weevils. In difierent groups special affinity 

 with the fauna of one or other of these regions is showu liy the Seychelles 

 insects. Thus Grouvelle finds l,^ c, pp 9-3-116) that of the Nitidnlidae and 

 Heteroceridae, se\en species have affinity with iladagascar, one with Africa, 

 and three with Ceyhm and the Malayan Islands. Scott, after study of the 

 Hydrophilidae and Histeridae {f. c, pp. 193-235, pi. l-l). finds that the 

 Seychelles species have predominant affinity to those in ^ladagascar and 

 Afiica, much the same result being apparent among the Adephaga (o^j. c 

 IV (X^'J, pp. 239-262). In the Lamellicornia, however (/. c, pp. 215-239), 

 there are three distinct Oriental relationships to five African or ^lalagasy. 

 The Oriental tendency is still more marked among the Pselaphidae, of which 

 KaftVay records {op. c. Y (XVI), pp. 117-138, pi. 10) only one African, and 

 one Indo- African, as compared with four Asiatic and seven Malayan affinities." 

 Turning to tlie Diptera, we find tliat the tropical distribution of most families 

 is too imperfectly known for satisfactory analysis ; but with regard to the 

 Tipnlidae, Edwards {op. cit. IV (XV;, pp. 195-214, pis. 10, 11) reckons ten 

 African against four Oriental species. Among the Lepidoptera, Fletcher 

 {pp. cit. II (XIII), pp. 265-324, pi. 17), dealing with the larger and more 

 conspicuous moths and butterfiies, mentions — in addition to many species 

 witli a veiy wide range — thirteen African and eleven Malagasy and 

 Mascarene, as against four Indian and three Malayan species. On the other 

 hand, Meyiick {op. cit. Ill iXn'), i)p. 263-307), describing the more primitive 

 Lepidopteran groups of the Tortricina and 'I'ineina, distinguishes between an 

 '•ancient and highly specialized fauna" and "all the rest which might have 

 been sporadically derived from the Indian region, excepting two or three 

 which more probably originated in Africa." In many cases like the above. 

 the more primitive orders or groups seem to show Oriental, and the more 

 specialized, African affinities. Thus Burr states {t. c, pp. 123-133), of the 



' In these references the first volume no. refers to the Reports of the Percy Sladen 

 Trust Exi)cditioii, the second (in brackets) to that of the Tntns. Linn. ,S'(ic. Zool., series 2. 



- Kolbe {Mitt. ZoM. Mus. BetliH. vol. v. 1, 191(1), reviewing the beetle-fauna of the 

 Seychelles before the Sladen Reports were available, dwelt on the predominance of the 

 Oriental aftiuities. 



