merous successive slight modifications" 1 would produce a uniform 

 result in such distant localities, and under such varied conditions 

 of life. Properly studied, these indications are quite as certain 

 as though we found the well preserved remains of these ancestors 

 in the mud and sand strata upon whk-h t hey flitted or dug in quest 

 of food. 



Other illustrations of survivals from indefinitely more remote 

 times I will also give you, from the Coleopterous fauna of our 

 own country, though passing time admonishes me to restrict their 



To make my remarks intelligible, I must begin by saying that 

 there are three great divisions of Coleoptera, which I will name in 

 the order of their complication of structural plan: 1. Rhynchc- 

 phora; 2. Heteromera ; 3. Ordinary or normal Coleoptera; the 

 last two being more nearly allied to each other than either is to 

 the first. I have in other places exposed the characters of these 

 divisions, and will not detain you by repeating them. 



From Palaeontological evidence derived from other branches of 

 zoology, we have a right to suppose, if this classification be cor- 

 rect, that these great types have been introduced upon the earth 

 in the order in which I have named them. 



Now, it is precisely in the first and second series that the most 

 anomalous instances of geographical distribution occur ; that is to 

 say, the same or nearly identical genera are represented by species 

 in very widely separated !v_dons, without occurring in interme- 

 diate or contiguous regions. Thus there is a genus Emeax, found- 

 ed by Mr. Pascoe, upon an Australian species, which, when I saw 

 it, I recognized as belonging to Nyctoporis, a California genus, 

 established many years before ; and in fact barely specifically dis- 

 tinct from N. galeata. Two other examples are Otlmius and Eu- 

 phurida, United States genera, which are respectively equivalent 

 to Elacatis and Ischalia, found in Borneo. Our native genera 

 Eurygenius and Toposcopus, are represented by scarcely different 

 forms in Australia. All these belong to the second series (Ileter- 



with less labor on my part than patience on yours. 

 A single example from the Rhynchophora, and I will pass to 



