58 



INTRODUCTION. 



striking speciality of the Burmese Fauna in this family of 

 Coleoptera. Most of the new genera belong to the obscurer 

 groups of the family, the tropical Asian members of which have 

 hitherto been much neglected, and some of them will doubtless 

 be found to occur in the neighbouring regions. Even the hilly 

 regions to which Signor Pea judiciously devoted his principal 

 attention at altitudes of 5000-6000 feet, failed to reveal distinct 

 traces of a special fauna ; in this respect differing much from the 

 mountainous districts of Sze-Chuen and Southern China. These 

 conclusions, however, are premature ; but they have seemed to 

 me useful to state, as showing the great interest of the problems 

 of geographical distribution, on which light is sure to be thrown 

 by further researches conducted in the same intelligent and 

 thorough manner as those of Leonardo Eea " (Ann. Mus. Civ. 

 Genova, (2) xii (xxxii), 1892, pp. 268-269). In this connection 

 we ought also to refer to the valuable catalogue of the Coleoptera 

 of the Oriental Region by E. T. Atkinson (Journ. Asiatic Soc. 

 Bengal, Supplement, 1890), which is indispensable for any worker 

 at the Asiatic or Indian Carabi^^e. 



If we consider the Indian members of the group we shall find 

 that such genera as Carabiis, Calosoma, PterosticJius, Amara, 



Calathus, Harpalus, Anchomenus, 

 and Bembiditnn are very poorly re- 

 presented or almost absent. Tachys 

 appears to take the place of Bem- 

 bidhim, Colpodes of Anchomenus, 

 and Abacetus of Pterosticlius : while 

 Clivina, Chlcenius, and the Bra- 

 C'hinina (Brachinus and Plierop- 

 soplius) are very numerous in 

 species, particularly the two former. 

 Casnonia, Drypta, Dendrocellus and 

 their allies are typical Indian 

 beetles, and of these the small 

 ant-like Selina ivestermanni is one 

 of the most curious and interesting. 

 Tetragonoderus and Catascopus are 

 well represented, but Lebia contains 

 only eight species, all from North 

 India or Burma. 



The genus Omopliron in the 

 catalogue of Mr. Atkinson, before 

 referred to, contains only four 

 Indian species, but in his supple- 

 ment he has added six more; this 

 Fig. 26.— Selina ivestermanni. shows how little we can trust 



to our present lists. In passing, it 

 is worth mentioning that M. Lameere in his recent classification 

 of the Coleoptera (Ann. Soc. Ent. Belgique, 1900, p. 355, and 

 1903, p. 155) places this last named genus among the Dytiscid^e, 



