1961] 
Darlington — Australian Carabid Beetles 
9 
State of wings of Carabidae is correlated with ecology and distri- 
bution. Most Carabidae in most parts of the world have fully devel- 
oped inner wings and can fly, but some have lost their wings (except 
for vestiges) and become flightless. The Australian carabid fauna 
includes an unusually large proportion of flightless species : according 
to my rough analysis (loc. cit.), nearly 45% of all Australian Carabi- 
dae have atrophied wings, and many genera and even some tribes are 
wholly flightless. Most hydrophiles and arboreal forms have retained 
their wings and can fly, but about 75% of Australian geophile Carabi- 
dae are flightless, and flightless groups are common everywhere in 
Australia, at low and high altitudes and in wet and dry climates, and 
some are well represented in the tropical as well as the temperate parts 
of the continent. In New Guinea flightnessess is rare among lowland 
Carabidae. This accords with the general rule that most Carabidae in 
most wholly tropical lowland areas are winged. On mountains in 
New Guinea, however, as on many tropical mountains elsewhere, 
flightless geophile Carabidae are numerous. 
New Guinea-Tropical Australian Relationships 
Probably the first fact that strikes entomologists collecting in the 
rain forests of tropical Australia is that some of the insects are species 
that occur in New Guinea. This is expected. The Australian rain 
forests themselves are predominantly New Guinean (or Malaysian) 
both in aspect and in botanical relationships (CSIRO 1950, pp. 95- 
96; Brass 1953 ? P* 154) ; many mammals in the North Queensland 
rain forests belong to New Guinean genera or even species; and so 
do many birds. Some Carabidae are common to New Guinean and 
Australian rain forests. For example Syleter papua Dari, extends to 
the tip of Cape York, living on the ground in shaded swamps. Morion 
longipenne Putz. of New Guinea extends to the main North Queens- 
land rain forests, on and in fallen logs. And Violagonum violaceum 
(Chd.) is common in rain forest in New Guinea and eastern Australia 
south at least to near Rockhampton, in accumulations of dead leaves 
on the ground and in thick foliage. Besides shared species like these 
(there are many others among Carabidae) the New Guinean and 
Australian rain forests share some geographically restricted genera, 
for example Platycoelus ( Chlaenioidius ) , Loxandrus , and Stricklandia, 
Explanation of Plate 3 
Fig. 6. Distribution of rain forests in eastern Australia. Solid lines enclose 
principal areas of tropical (including subtropical) rain forest; broken lines, 
of south temperate rain forest. In most cases rain forest is not continuous 
within the boundaries shown but occurs in discontinuous or scattered tracts. 
See text for further details. 
