COLEOPTERA. 
219 
S. Nicolao 27 
S. lago ........ 130 
Fogo ........ 93 
Brava G1 
The dominant forms are the Heteromerous genera Oxycara 
and Tricho sternum, representatives of which occur everywhere 
beneath stones and rubbish from the sea-level to the summits. 
These exist in numerous forms, described by Wollaston as 
species, resembling the species of the genus Hegeter, so abun- 
dant in the Canaries, very closely. Trichosternum in like man- 
ner represents the Madeiran genus Hadrus ; and the relations of 
these forms seem to have suggested to Wollaston^s mind, the 
possibility (which, however, he finally denies) that the Cape 
Verde genera may be ^^geographical phases of their more 
northern relatives. Other dominant forms are Opatrum and a 
new Rhynchophorous genus {Dinas) allied to the Canarian 
Herpysticus, Wollaston notices as eminently characteristic, 
though not strictly dominant,^^ Microptinus echinatus, sp. n., 
Cratognatkus labiatus (Erichs.), species of Scymnus, Ammidium 
ciliatum (Erichs.), Aphanarthrum hesperidum, sp. n., Litargus 
^-fasciatus (WolL), and Sunius nigromaculatus (Motsch.). 
At the same time that the general character of the Coleo- 
pterous fauna is decidedly in accordance with that prevailing in 
the more northern groups, certain genera which may be re- 
garded as highly characteristic of the latter are absent in the 
Cape Verde islands, especially Tarphius, Laparocerus, and At- 
lantis. Calathus, Trechus, Acalles, and Helops are also noticed 
by Wollaston as being in a less degree eharaeteristic Northern 
Atlantic forms absent in the Cape Verde archipelago. 
Upon the question of the right of many of the so-called 
species to hold specific rank Wollaston appears to entertain 
some doubt ; and here, as in his Coleoptera Atlantidum,^ he 
indicates that many forms dcseribed under specifie names are so 
nearly allied to others existing either in other islands of the 
group, in the more northern archipelagos, or in Europe, that 
if they had occurred upon a continuous region he would have 
hesitated long before regarding them as distinct ; and he states 
that, in his opinion, if subsidences so great as those necessary 
for breaking up an ancient Atlantic continent into a few scat- 
tered islands may be admitted to have taken place, it requires 
^^no stretch of the imagination to conclude that a very large 
majority of such insular departures from a central form as those 
which we now meet with would have resulted from them as a 
matter of course, and would have been rapidly matured from 
their respective tj'^pes.^^ Of the 169 genera hitherto detected in 
the Cape Verdes, 123 are found in the more northern archipe- 
lagos, whilst of the 278 ^^species^^ here recorded, only 107 are 
common to the two sets of islands. Taking the genera, again. 
