THE CHIEF COLEOPTEHOUS FA.UNJ3. 



L3 



Mr. Wollaston next found that out of a total of 930 species, 

 224 are identical with Madeiran species, and, notably, that the 

 same peculiar types which gave to Madeira the character of a 

 subfauna, are also present there in force. The Cape-Verde 

 Islands tell the same tale. Previous to the appearance of Mr. 

 Wollaston's 1 Coleoptera Hesperidum,' the usual belief among 

 entomologists was, that the fauna of the Cape- Verde Islands 

 partook more of that of the coast of Africa, nearest which they 

 lie, than that of any other country. Mr. Wollaston has shown 

 that this is a mistake. In his introductory remarks he says, 

 " Our recent explorations in the Cape Verdes have shown their 

 Coleopterous population to be so far more than I had anticipated 

 on the Canarian and Madeiran type, that I am anything but 

 certain that it would not be more natural to regard the whole of 

 these Atlantic islands as characterized by a single fauna — un- 

 mistakably the same, even whilst necessarily differing as to many 

 of its exact details (and through the fact of mere distance) in the 

 more widely separated groups." From my own materials I 

 rather inclined to the more general notion, and I therefore care- 

 fully tested Mr. Wollaston's conclusions by his data, and the 

 result fully corroborated his view. Out of 275 Cape- Verde 

 species, 91 were common to the Canaries, and 81 to the Ma- 

 deiran group. The African element proved slight, as Wollaston 

 said, and such as might fairly enough be referred to chance in- 

 troductions from the opposite coast of Africa. The European 

 element continues, as before, the staple, and a new phase of the 

 peculiar endemic subfauna of Madeira is also a characteristic 

 element of its fauna. 



In support of the above statements, I shall merely specify one 

 or two of the most striking of the types which are present in all 

 the Atlantic-island groups under the same or similar forms. In 

 Madeira the Heteromera are characterized by the presence of the 

 endemic genera Hadrus and Hegeter, Hadrus having three spe- 

 cies, Hegeter only one. In the Canaries, Hadrus has disappeared, 

 but Hegeter has nineteen species, and in the Cape Verdes He- 

 geter is reduced to one, but a new form, Oxycara, has taken its 

 place with ten species. In Madeira, the Curculionidae are dis- 

 tinguished by a profusion of Cossonidae containing new genera and 

 new species in a marked degree. The same prevails in all the 

 islands ; so with Acalles, a small genus with few species in Europe, 

 but with an especial redundancy in all the islands. Atlantus or 



