206 Notice on the Coleoptera of Hong Kong. [Aug. 



Notice on the Coleoptera of Hong Kong, by Capt. Champion, 95 th 

 Regt. (Communicated by Dr. J. McLelland.) 



It may not be generally known by Indian Naturalists, that a very 

 complete collection of the insects of Hong Kong, especially its Coleop- 

 tera, has been made by John Bowring, Esq. a Member of the Entomo- 

 logical Society of London, who has been for some years a resident of 

 the Island, and is an excellent practical Entomologist and Naturalist. 

 As Mr. Bowring returned to England by the April Mail, it is to be 

 hoped that he will not neglect the opportunity of publishing such of his 

 collection as remain at present undescribed. 



The insects made up for sale by the Chinese, and usually arriving in 

 England in a very mutilated and unscientific state of preservation for 

 the cabinet of the Entomologist, were described as far back as the time 

 of Fabricius, and of Donovan in 1798 ; with this exception, there have 

 been very scanty notices of other Chinese insects (consult Dejean's Cata- 

 logues of Coleoptera) until Mr. Hope, in March 1842, published half a 

 century of the Coleoptera of Canton and Chusan, collected by Dr. Can- 

 tor, at a period when he was too much of an invalid to collect largely. 

 An almost unexplored field thus lay open to Mr. Bowring on his arrival 

 in China, and although his means of research have been almost entirely 

 limited to the little Island of Hong Kong and neighbourhood of Macao, 

 the result of his labours has been very successful. Part of his new 

 Coleoptera and Homoptera have been published in the Annals of Natu- 

 ral History, Vol. IV. December, 1844, by Adam White, Esq. There 

 is reason to believe that insular and mountainous Hong Kong is more 

 productive in its Entomology than the opposite coast although the 

 general features of the mountains there resemble those of Hong Kong, 

 and produce a similar Fauna. Macao seems to differ more than would 

 be expected from its distance from the Island. Already is Mr. Bowring 

 in possession of upwards of six hundred Coleoptera from these two 

 localities. 



Mr. Bowring and myself paid much attention this winter to the col- 

 lection of the Carabideous Genera, the rarer species of which, as in other 

 countries, appear to frequent marshy localities or the summits of moun- 

 tains. Several fine species were there captured in tolerable abundance, 

 and possibly belonging to new genera. Amongst those whose genera 



