22 



MR. A. MURRAY ON THE GEOGRAPHICAL RELATIONS OF 



recorded as indigenous to Great Britain, three to Algeria, and 

 three to Egypt. Among the new species Mr. Cambridge found 

 " but little to denote a locality so near the tropics." (See extract 

 from Mr. Cambridge's paper in the Appendix.) 



Mr. Cambridge also records two Scorpions from St, Helena in 

 the same collection, Lychas maculatus, Koch, and L. americanus, 

 Koch (American but easily introduced). 



The butterflies seem as badly represented as the birds ; and I 

 would recommend to the consideration of the advocates of intro- 

 duction by chance dispersal the fact that the two classes of ani- 

 mals best provided with means of dispersal are precisely those 

 which, along with the mammals, are least represented. I can find 

 no published notice of any Lepidoptera in St. Helena. No spe- 

 cimens of any exist in the British Muse am ; and the solitary 

 species that I can learn by inquiry to have been met with is the 

 Cynthia Cardui*. Cynthia Cardui ) I need scarcely say, is what is 

 usually called a cosmopolitan species ; but in very many instances 

 it will now be found that what have been called cosmopolitan 

 forms are only microtypal, that is, found in every part of the 

 world but those parts of India, Africa, and Brazil to which the 

 microtypal stirps had not had access. 



Until lately, our knowledge of the Beetles of St. Helena was 

 limited to some twenty species or so. Mr. Wollaston has re- 

 cently, however, considerably extended it, mainly through the 

 researches of Mr. Melliss and Mr. Bewicke, and has published a 

 catalogue (see 'Annals of Natural History,' 1869 and 1870) in 

 which seventy-five species are enumerated. His observation upon 

 these is as follows. " If we exclude from consideration the 

 tw enty-six species (above alluded to) which have unquestionably 

 been brought into the island through the medium of commerce, 

 and which enter into the fauna of nearly every civilized country, I 

 need scarcely add that the St.-Helena list, as hitherto made known, 



* Prof. Westwood is my authority for this, and for the sake of preserving the 

 information he give?, I quote what he says : " As to the insects of St. Helena, I 

 am sorry to say that I can give you scarcely any information. In one of Dr. 

 Burchell's cabinets was a drawer filled with insects from that island, but it unfor- 

 tunately had no door and had been left neglected. After Dr. Burchell's death some 

 wretched moths got into that particular drawer and devoured nearly everything. 

 I kept all the fragments possible, and can determine some fourteen or fifteen spe- 

 cies of common forms, Coccinella, Sepidium, Necrobia, Cynthia Cardui. It for- 

 tunately happened that the type specimen of the curious Aplothorax Burchelli 

 remained intact." 



