488 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF INSECTS. 
more satisfactorily than by confining our attention to 
the latter. Groups, according to their range, may be de- 
nominated either predominant, dominant, sub-dominant, 
or guzescent. 
1. M. Latreille has observed, that where the empire 
of Flora ceases, there also terminates that of Zoology?. 
Phytiphagous animals can only exist where there are 
plants; and those that are carnivorous and feed upon the 
former, must of necessity stop where they stop. Even the 
gnat, which extends its northern reign so high®, must 
cease at this limit; while, where vegetation is the richest 
and most abundant, there the animal productions, espe- 
cially the insect, must be equally abundant. I call that, 
therefore, a predominant group, members of which are 
found in all the countries between these points, or from 
the limits of animal-depasturing vegetation in the polar 
regions to the line. 
Generally speaking, the carnivorous insects, whether 
thalerophagous or saprophagous, are of this description. 
Calosoma, which devours Lepidopterous larve, though 
poor in species and individuals, is widely scattered. Cap- 
tain Frankland found C. calidum in his Arctic journey ; 
C. laterale and curvipes inhabit tropical America‘; C. 
Chinense, as its name indicates, is Chinese4?; Mr. Mac- 
Leay has an undescribed species from New Holland; and 
C. retusum was taken in Terra del Fuego. Another 
genus, equally universal and richer in numbers, is the 
lady-bird (Coccinella), which keeps within due limits the 
* Géogr. Génér. des Ins. 2. b When I described the 
Melville Island insects for Captain Sabine, I received from him no 
Culices ; but I afterwards saw in his possession a genuine one from 
thence.—K. © Linn. Trans. xii. 3880—. n. 6, 7. 4 Tbid. n. 5. 
