Carpen'I'kr— The Apterygota of the Seychelles. 56 



of Cy/ihoderus insularuin, the distinctively Ethiopian and Malagasy insects 

 in our collection do not come from the Seychelles proper at all, but from the 

 island groups to the west — Aldabra and Farquluir. Our knowledge of the 

 Apterygota of Madagascar and the African continent is, however, far too 

 incomplete to allow us to attach great importance to negative evidence on tliis 

 aspect of the question. But so far as our present information goes, a study 

 of the .Seychelles Apterygota indicates that the latest continental connexion 

 of the archipelago was with India and Ceylon rather than with Africa. 

 That the ancestors of these wingless insects did reach their present habita- 

 tions by means of continuous laud-tracts is far more likely than that they 

 were carried over wide seas by winds or on floating objects ; and even 

 Wallace, upholding though he does the theory of the permanence of oceanic 

 basins, admits that the Seyelielles are not typical " oceanic islands," and 

 suggests their possible former connexion with Madagascar. Their spring- 

 tails and bristle-tails seem to tell us plainly that they were once joined with 

 India and Ceylon. At the same time, the absence from the fauna of many 

 important groups, the specific distinctness of most of the insects, the 

 presence of such an apparently primitive and annectant genus as Microparo- 

 nella, and the elaboration of such highly modified and beautiful types of 

 structure as are exhibited in the species of Corethromachilis, all support the 

 conclusion that the islands have long been separated from any continental 

 area. 



Eefeuences to Literature. 



'90. W. T. Blanfoed.— Anniversary Address of the President [on the 

 Permanence of Ocean Basins]. Proc. Geol. Soc, London, 1889- 

 90, pp. 43-110 (in Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc, xlvi, 1890). 



'01. C. BoENER. — Vorlaufige Mitteilungen iiber einige neue Aphorurinen 

 und zar Systematik der CoUembola. Zool. Anz., xxiii, 1901, 

 pp. 1-15. 



'03. jSTeue altweltliche Collembolen nebst Bemerkungen zur Systematik 



der Isotoilrinen und Entomobryinen. Sitzb. der Gesellsch. nalur- 

 forsch. Freunde, Berlin, 1903, pp. 129-182. 



'06. Das System der Collembolen, nebst Beschreibung neuer Collem- 

 bolen des Hamburger naturhistorischen Museums. Mitt, aus deni 

 naturhist. Museum, Hamburg, xxiii, 1906, pp. 147-188. 



'07. Collembolen aus Ostafrika, Madagascar und Siidameriea. In 



Voeltzkow's Pteise in Ostafrika. Wissensch, Ergelniisse, ii. Band, 

 pp. 147, 148, pis. 7, 8. Stuttgart, 1907. 



