228 
ZOOLOGICAL GEOGRAPHY. 
[part III 
Coleoptera. — The beetles of Japan decidedly exhibit a mixture 
of tropical forms with others truly Palrearctic, and it has been 
with some naturalists a matter of doubt whether the southern and 
best known portion of the islands should not be joined to the 
Oriental region. An important addition to our knowledge of 
the insects of this country has recently been made by Mr. George 
Lewis, and a portion of his collections have been described by 
various entomologists in the Transactions of the Entomological 
Society of London. As the question is one of considerable in- 
terest w x e shall give a summary of the results fairly deducible 
from what is now known of the entomology of Japan; and it 
must be remembered that almost all our collections come from 
the southern districts, in what is almost a sub-tropical climate ; 
so that if we find a considerable proportion of Pahearctic forms, 
we may be pretty sure that the preponderance will be much 
greater a little further north. 
Of Carabidse Mr. Bates enumerates 244 species belonging to 
84 genera, and by comparing these with the Coleoptera of a 
tract of about equal extent in western Europe, he concludes that 
there is little similarity, and that the cases of affinity to the forms 
of eastern tropical Asia preponderate. By comparing his genera 
■with the distributions as given in Gemminger and Harold's 
Catalogue , a somewhat different result is arrived at. Leaving 
out the generic types altogether peculiar to Japan, and also those 
genera of such world-wide distribution that they afford no clear 
indications for our purpose, it appears that no less than twenty - 
two genera, containing seventy-four of the Japanese species, are 
either exclusively Palsearctic, Pahearctic and Nearctie, or highly 
characteristic of the Pahearctic region ; then come thirteen genera 
containing eighty-seven of the species which have a very wide 
distribution, but are also Pahearctic : we next have seventeen 
genera containing twenty-four of the Japanese species which are 
decidedly Oriental and tropical. Here then the fair comparison 
is between the twenty -two genera and seventy-four species whose 
affinities are clearly Palaearetic or at least north temperate, and 
seventeen genera with twenty-four species which are Asiatic 
and tropical; and this seems to prove that, although South 
