128 Descriptive Catalogue [1896. 



But the 2 South African species have a different facies from their 

 congeners from Senegambia and Central Africa. 



The Masoreides' range is very wide. Three genera are represented 

 in South Africa, but none is indigenous. 



The Pterostichides have very typical South African representatives. 

 Of the 8 genera, including 48 species, 1 is typically western and 3 

 eastern, but 17 species are restricted to the western fauna ; 1 genus, 

 Teratotarsa, with 1 species, and also Pterostichus Severini, have 

 as yet been met with on Table Mountain only. This is so much 

 more singular that there is at the Cape neither an Alpine nor a sub- 

 Alpine fauna, yet I know of several Coleoptera which are found on 

 Table Mountain only or on the Table Mountain range, and which 

 are quite unknown elsewhere, among them being a most typical 

 Scaritid — Pachyodontus languidus. I did hope at one time that the 

 Drakensberg range might have such an Alpine or sub-Alpine fauna, 

 but I have now good reasons to believe that such is not the case. 

 In fact the high plateaux of the central part of South Africa are 

 reached by terraces, and the climatic conditions prevailing are a bar 

 to the possibility of an isolated fauna holding its own against new- 

 comers from the surrounding parts. 



The Platynides are fairly numerous, 8 genera and 27 species. One 

 genus, Lcemosthenus, is very probably an importation of recent date, 

 and so far as I have been able to ascertain L. complanatus is 

 restricted to the neighbourhood of the coast ports. The tribe 

 includes the genus Euleptus, originally described from Madagascar 

 and also met with in the Himalayan range. 



The Pogonides, represented by 3 genera — one South African — and 

 10 species, do not call for special remark. 



The Bembiides, which number 4 genera and 22 species, have a 

 very wide distribution ; certain species occur also on the Zanzibar 

 mainland. One of them is reported to be found in New Caledonia. 

 A species of the absolutely eyeless genus Scotodipnus, recorded only 

 from Europe, occurs also near Cape Towm. This species, S. capensis, 

 is, with the exception of Beicheia Promontorii, the only anophthal- 

 mous beetle as yet recorded from South Africa. But while in 

 Scotodipnus the eye has completely disappeared, in Beiclieia capensis 

 the eye has become rudimentary, being reduced to one facet only. 

 I have ascertained, however, that this insect is completely blind.''' 



To some it may seem premature, with our present knowledge, to 

 tabulate the distribution of the Coleoptera in South Africa, yet after 

 15 years' work specially directed to a consideration of the occurrence 

 of Coleoptera in that part of the world, I feel almost certain that 

 future researches will not show reason for much alteration being- 

 made in the tables now presented, except that some of the South 

 * In the genus Hetcrillus the eyes have only a few facets. 



