DERIVATION OF BRITISH COLEOPTERA. 179 



taken only in Sherwood Forest and Killarney. That bril- 

 liant insect, too, Lytta vesicatoria, until, to the amazement 

 of coleopterists, it turned up last year in Boscommon, might 

 have been regarded as a peculiarly English species, as it 

 had only been taken a few times in Kent and Hampshire. 

 Another conspicuous Beetle, Nebria complanata, in Eng- 

 land, inhabits only the sandy shores of the Bristol Channel, 

 and, in Ireland, a short strip of the Wexford coast 

 immediately opposite. This case however, I consider it 

 allowable to hold to be due to accidental transference, 

 since the species is purely littoral in its habits and is fond 

 of hiding under and in the crevices of drift wood lying on 

 the shore. Hence its transport across from the Bristol 

 Channel to Wexford is not inconceivable. 



And thirdly, we have species which are only found in 

 Ireland.; this has been called the Iberian element in the 

 fauna of that enigmatical island and the spotted slug of 

 Kerry. Geomalacns maculosus is a famous example of it. 

 It is, I believe, also well marked in the flora. There is a 

 house spider, Tegenaria hibernica, the special pride of 

 Dublin, and a jumping spider, Attics floricola , from Lough 

 Corrib, discovered only two years ago, both unknown else- 

 where in the British Islands. Among the Coleoptera, so 

 far, we can name only Silpha subrotundata and Otiorr- 

 hynchus auropunctatus , and, curiously enough, this latter 

 species has more an eastern than a western range ; but 

 when the wilds of Kerry and Clare have been more 

 thoroughly explored by Coleopterists, I doubt not that the 

 list will be larger one. 



Now, these facts require a great deal of explanation, the 

 more so if we grant any community of origin to the species 

 under discussion, for some of them exhibit great discon- 

 tinuity of distribution which, according to Dr. Wallace 

 and other high authorities, infers great antiquity, of origin, 



