Caepjontkr— TAe Aptefygota of the Seychelles. 53 



lowly Dermaptera (Earwigs) ihat tlie Seychelles species show distinctly more 

 relationship with those of Ceylon than with the African. Bolivar and Ferriere 

 {op. cit. IV (XV), pp. 293-300) point out that all the Seychelles Phasmidae 

 show Indian, Malayan, or Australian affinities. And with regard to the 

 Odonata (dragon-flies) — nine species of which had been collected by Wright 

 ('69) — Campion [o]}. cit. IV (XV), pp. 435-446) finds that while the Aldabra 

 and Assumption species are typically African, the Seychelles insects 

 are predominantly Indian. Two Seychelles species are also Malagasy, two 

 .African, three both African and Indian, and five Oriental, while of the six 

 endemic Seychelles dragon-flies, the three Zygoptera (demoiselles) have 

 Asiatic, and the three Anisoptera (the more robust Libellulidae and 

 Aeschnidae) liave African affinities; most students of the dragon-flies would 

 probably regard the Zygoptera as a more primitive tribe than the Anisoptera. 

 Now it is noteworthy that the affinities of the Seychelles Apterygota are 

 with Oriental more than with Ethiopian, species, and as the Apterygota must 

 be regarded as the most primitive of insects, the distribution of the allies of our 

 Seychelles bristle-tails and spring-tails agrees well with the results obtained 

 from the study of other groups. The establishineut of such faunistic links, 

 afforded by delicate insects like the Apterygota, incapable of flight, and living 

 for the most part in concealed situations, is in full accord with the belief 

 entertained by many naturalists, in the existence of a Mesozoic and early 

 Cainozoic continental area joining the countries and archipelagoes now widely 

 separated by the waters of the Indian Ocean. This subject has been discussed 

 from the geographical standpoint by Gardiner ('06, '07-'14), who accepts 

 Neuniayer's suggestion of a continuous land tract in Mesozoic times from 

 South Africa by way of Madagascar and the Seychelles to India and Ceylon, 

 besides a wide continent stretching across the South Atlantic from Africa to 

 America. Hirst {op. cit. V (XVI), p. 31) points out that the distribution of 

 the scorpionid genus Lychas " is very suggestive of the former existence of 

 continuous land between the Oriental region and the southern part of the 

 African continent. In Cainozoic times the Seychelles ai'chipelago must have 

 formed part of the large insular or sub-continental tracts which then, as is 

 generally agreed, occupied much of the area of the Indian Ocean. These 

 geographical changes would explain how the elements of the Seychelles fauna 

 are partly Oriental and partly African in their affinities. Most ancient of all 

 the inhabitants are the purely endemic animals, or those whose range is very 

 wide and discontinuous. Gardiner mentions the serpentine amphibians — 

 the Caecilia — as vertebrate examples of this ancient element. They are 

 matched by such Apterygote genera as Lepidocampa and Cremastocephalus, 

 which tell — unless " accidental " means of dispersal can be supposed to 



