THE COLEOPTEEA OF SOUTH AFEICA. 



Pakt II.— CAEABID^. 



DISTEIBUTION IN SOUTH AFEICA. 



The distribution of CarabidcB in Central Africa is not yet sufficiently 

 known to enable one to decide where the points of contact of the 

 South African fauna are to be found, but in this fainiily, as in all 

 others, the influence of the Ethiopian region is unmistakable. Most 

 of the genera found in Abyssinia, Somaliland, and the Galla country 

 are also represented in the eastern part of South Africa, and I doubt 

 not that most of the species, as well as genera recorded from the 

 Zanzibar mainland, will also be found in Zambezia. The affinity 

 between the Senegambian and South African fauna is also indubit- 

 able, but it is of a much less distinct type than the Ethiopian one, 

 and a few West Coast African forms are also met with on the 

 boundary, so to speak, of the eastern part of the Cape fauna. 



The influence of the Ethiopian region seems to end at Port Alfred, 

 at about 17° E. Long., along a narrow sea belt, having a sub- 

 tropical fauna and flora. This South African eastern fauna spreads 

 over the Gaza country, Mozambique, Zambezia (which includes 

 Mashuna and Matabele lands, with part of Manica), the whole 

 Transvaal, Zulu and Amatonga lands. Natal, and that part of the 

 Orange Free State west of 27° E. Long. 



Western South Africa, as divided by that line, has a peculiar fauna 

 of its own extending over the Cape Colony, Great Namaqua and 

 Damara lands, and the Kalahari or southern part of N'Gamiland. 

 It is in these parts that most of the genera, strikingly peculiar to 

 South Africa, are found ; and throughout the same area representa- 

 tives of the Ethiopian region are scarce. 



North of 23° S. Lat. the swampy region of Lake N'Gami makes its 

 influence felt, and there the two South African faunas unite across 

 the continent. 



It is worthy of note that this defined area applies not only to the 

 carabidous fauna, but also to the whole of the South African 

 Coleoptera, as I hope to be able to show when treating of the other 

 families. 



125 



