176 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



still very limited ; thus, I should assign to this group such 

 an insect as Nebria livida, whose occurrence is restricted 

 to the sea coast of Yorkshire, and most of the fen species. 

 Many of them are phytophagous and attached to special 

 plants ; others, creophagous or necrophagous, and so 

 dependent on the existence of higher animals. These 

 factors rather complicate the question, as it becomes 

 evident that the distribution of the Beetles is limited by 

 the possibilities of distribution of their various hosts and 

 food plants. I have already remarked that a proportion 

 of this group does not seem to have reached Ireland at 

 all. It is quite true that up to within about ten years ago 

 very little was known of the Coleoptera of Ireland, and 

 that, since that time, every year has added species to the 

 Irish list, but as the Irish deficiency in mammals, and 

 still more in reptilia, is certain and notorious, it is 

 perhaps a fair presumption that many of these Coleop- 

 tera do not really exist there. In this connection I should 

 like to point out that the Manx Coleopterous fauna, so far 

 as it has been studied, is quite Irish in character ; even 

 that peculiarly Irish form Silpha subrotundata occurs 

 there. It exhibits the same preponderance of the Celtic 

 group, the same differences in the eastern one, and, 

 curiously enough, a quite southern English species, the 

 well-known rose chafer, Getonia aurata, which has rather 

 surprised entomologists by baving been recently found in 

 Arran Island, off Galway and in the extreme west of 

 Kerry, Clare, and Donegal ; has also occurred in the 

 Isle of Man. So little, however, is really known of the 

 Manx Coleoptera, that it would be rash to hazard any 

 theories on the meagre facts in our possession. 



We may, I think, take it for granted that no species 

 now, except under exceptional and non-natural conditions, 

 is increasing or ever will increase its range. No doubt 



