244 
INSECTA. COLEOPTERA. 
South and Central America east of the Andes and north of the River Plate, 
and furnishes a large share in the constitution of North America, receiving in 
turn a very perceptible tinge from the microtypal stirps. The microtypal 
stirps includes Europe, Asia north of the Himalayas, Eastern North America 
(so far as not modified by the Brazilian element), and (in a less degree) North- 
west America, California, part of Mexico, Peru, Chili, the Argentine Re- 
public south of Tucuman, Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego, Polynesia, New Zea- 
land, and Australia. The apparent paradox of including the first and last of 
these countries in the same stirps is endeavoured to be accounted for by the 
inference, from the fact of the Eocene flora of Europe having many points of 
correlation with the present Australian flora, and from the author’s supposition 
of the probability of the European Eocene beetle-fauna having been the same 
as the Miocene (based upon fleer’s proof that the Miocene beetle-fauna of 
Europe was of the same type as at present), that the Eocene fauna of Europe 
has (like the Eocene flora of Australia) survived in its Eocene form down to 
the present day. The author’s conviction is that there have been almost cer- 
tainly two great continental routes of communication between the northern 
and southern hemispheres — one now at the bottom of the Pacific, the other 
of the Atlantic. The beetle-faunae of the Madeiran Isles and of the Azores, as 
enumerated by Wollaston and Crotch, are considered substantially to corro- 
borate the microtypal stirps, the European element (hitherto held to have 
been introduced) being treated as natural denizens. The entire fauna of St, 
Helena is discussed at some length (the author admitting tliat tliat island is 
the crucial test of his hypothesis of a communication between the northern 
and southern hemispheres by an Atlantic continent), and is regarded as be- 
longing to the Atlantic subfauna of the microtypal stirps. Eastward, this 
stirps is traced through Siberia, China (due stress being given to the preva- 
lence there of European forms), and Japan (where, however, as in China, the 
Hymenoptera are wholly dilferentfrom the European type), to North America, 
thence, via California, to Mexico and the other South- American countries 
above mentioned. Coast- and cave-beetles, and the occasional occurrence 
of European genera, are relied upon as strong evidence of all these belong- 
ing to the same stirps, — the occurrence of South-African forms in South 
America being accounted for by a submerged Patagonian continent, which 
may have existed at three different epochs. The non-coral isles of Polynesia 
are claimed as microtypal, again chiefly on the ground of their possessing 
British forms j and the European affinities of a very considerable portion of 
the ingredients of the Coleopterous fauna of Australia are stated to be with- 
out doubt, — some peculiarly Australian forms being also thought to be local 
representatives of South-American (and therefore') European races. The 
common want of certain conspicuous families or genera by Australia and the 
microtypal stirps in other countries is relied upon by the author as a 
connecting link j and the Miocene epoch supplies some missing forms. 
As regards the Indo-African stirps, the author’s chief points are his present 
conviction (opposed to Wallace’s opinion) that the Coleoptera of the New- 
Guinea islands are essentially Indo-Malayan, — that, although Africa (south of 
the Sahara) is better entitled to claim rank as a separate province than India, 
there was but one original stock for both, as most of the genera occurring in 
one are found, under suitable conditions, in the other, and some large groups 
(e. g. Staphylinidee) are absent in both of them, — that Africa was disjoined 
