CIIAF. XXI.] 
INSECTS. 
491 
region, with one species in Madagascar ; while it has Orthogo - 
nitis, Bexagonia , Macrochilus, and Thyreopterus in common with 
the Ethiopian region, and is rich in the fine tropical genus, 
Catascopus. 
The Ethiopian region has 75 peculiar genera, 8 of which are 
confined to Madagascar. The more important are, — Polyhirma, 
Graphipterus, and Piezia. Anthia is chiefly African, with a 
few species in India; Abaeetus is wholly African, except a 
species in Java, and another in South Europe ; and Bypolithus 
is typically African, but with 7 species in South America and 1 
in Java. 
The facts of distribution presented by this important family, 
looked at broadly, do not support any other division of the earth 
into primary regions than that deduced from a study of the 
higher animals. The amount of speciality in each of these 
regions is so great, that no two of them can be properly united ; 
and in this respect the Carabidse accord wonderfully with the 
Vertebrates. In the details of distribution there occur many 
singular anomalies ; but these are not to be wondered at, if we 
take into consideration the immense antiquity of Coleopterous 
insects — which existed under specialised forms so far back as the 
Carboniferous epoch, — the ease with which they may be dispersed 
as compared witli larger animals, and the facilities afforded by 
their small size, habits of concealment, and often nocturnal habits, 
for adaptation to the most varied conditions, and for surviving 
great changes bf surface and of the surrounding organic forms. 
The wonder rather is, not that there are so many, but so few cases 
of exceptional and anomalous distribution ; and the fact that 
these creatures, so widely different from Vertebrates in organi- 
sation and mode of life, are yet on the whole subject to the same 
limitations of range as were found to occur among the higher 
animals, affords a satisfactory proof that the principles on which 
our six primary regions are founded, are sound ; and that they 
are well adapted to exhibit the most interesting facts of geo- 
graphical distribution, among all classes of animals. 
Much stress has been laid on the fact of a few species of such 
typical European genera as CarabvjS, Dromius , and others, being 
