GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF INSECTS. 49] 
is as big as C. Gigas or bucephalus. Another domi- 
nant group of Petalocera, remarkable for the bulk and 
arms of its tropical species, are the mighty Dynastida, 
the giants and princes of the insect race. Though their 
metropolis is strictly tropical, yet the scouts of their host 
have wandered even as far as the south of Sweden, where 
one of them, Oryctes nasicornis, is extremely common. 
O. Grypus* and some other species are found in South 
Europe; but though in a torpid state they can endure 
unhurt the severity of a Scandinavian winter, they cannot 
when revived stand the cold that often pinches Britons 
in the midst of summer, and therefore are unknown in 
our islands». The Spheridiade, whose metropolis is 
within the northern temperate zone, extend from thence 
beyond the line, since Dr. Horsfield found two species 
in Java‘. It is probable, indeed, that this group is pre- 
dominant. Some dominant groups begin at a lower la- 
titude. Of this description are the carpenter-bees (Xylo- 
copa), whose larvee are preyed upon by that of Horia4 
under ¢wo forms, which extend from the tropics to about 
50° N.L. Others are not common to both worlds. 
Thus, while Cantharis is the gift of PRoviDENCE to Ame- 
rica as well as the old world, Mylabris is confined to the 
latter, where its range is very extensive;—in Europe, 
from South Russia to Italy and Spain; in Asia, from 
Siberia to India; and in Africa, from the shores of the 
Mediterranean to the Cape of Good Hope; which last 
continent, to judge from our present lists, especially the 
a Ahren’s Fn. Europ. i. 1. > Hor. Ent. 47—. 
© Annulosa Javanica, 36. 
4 See the Rev. L. Guilding’s admirable History of Xylocopa Te- 
redo and Horia maculata, Linn. Trans, xiv. 313—. 
