INSECTS OF SAMOA 



Part IV. Fasc. 2. 



HETEKOMEKA, BOSTRYCHOIDEA, MALACO- 

 DEEMATA AND BUPRESTIDAE 



By K. G. Blair, B.Sc. 



(With 14 Text-figures.) 



From the distributional standpoint, the Coleoptera of the groups here dealt 

 with seem to fall into three categories : (a) peculiar to the Samoan Group ; 

 (6) of wider distribution in the Pacific, in some cases apparently limited to 

 neighbouring groups of islands, in others extending throughout the tropics of 

 the old world ; (c) cosmopolitan, in most cases store-pests and undoubtedly 

 introduced by commerce ; this latter category is of course of no value in 

 considering zoogeographical distribution. 



Out of about sixty species discussed in the present paper, twenty-two 

 belong to the first category, while five genera, Apteromerus, n., Callistroma 

 Fairm., Scolytocis, n., Melaneros Fairm. and Samoaneros, n., are also peculiar 

 to Samoa. A further ten species, together with the genus Menandris Haag, 

 are known in addition only from the adjacent groups of Wallis Is., Fiji, 

 Tonga, and the Ellice Is. Of these autochthonous genera, Apteromerus is no 

 doubt an offshoot from Bradymerus Perr., a genus mainly Indo-Malayan and 

 Melanesian in distribution, and Callistroma from Paracupta Deyr., largely 

 developed in Melanesia. For Scolytocis it is difficult to assign any particular 

 origin ; Melaneros and probably Samoaneros are offshoots from the large and 

 somewhat indeterminate genus Plateros, and probably also of Indo-Malayan 

 origin. 



A consideration of the distribution of some of the more extensive but not 

 too generally distributed genera, Bradymerus, Menimus, Uloma, Thesilea, 



IV. 2 67 1 



