136 
ST. HELENA. 
reason to suspect that the Rhynchophora of this mountain-island are, 
in proportion to its size, both numerous and eccentric.’ 
I have thought it worth while to allude to these casual obser- 
vations of my own, because they have been so strictly and literally 
■verified. Not only have A tier oxylo b ius and Nitioxenus been aug- 
mented by newly discovered exponents, but everything tends to 
prove that they are immeasurably the most significant of the island 
forms ; indeed an undescribed and closely related genus has been 
detected alongside the latter, as though still further to enhance the 
local importance of that particular Anthribideous type. Scarcely 
less characteristic, however, than even these three, are, perhaps, the 
obscure Curculionideous groups Nesiotes and Trachyphlceosoma ; and, 
if indeed it be truly aboriginal (and there is no reason for suspecting 
the contrary), that curious little blind Cossonid, the Pentarth rum 
suhcacum, may be added to the number, in which case the Rhyncho- 
phora alone would monopolize no less than six of the most anomalous 
endemic genera! Indeed the only other manifestly indigenous 
forms which I should define as par excellence ‘abnormal’ are 
Haplothorax of the Carabidse, and perhaps Mellissius of the Lamel- 
licorns, neither of which, however, are so eccentric in their structure 
as the six lihynchophorous ones to which I have just alluded. 
“ Apart , however, from their singularity of type, it may be useful, 
in order to illustrate the mere numerical preponderance of the 
weevils (as regards both species and genus) in the St. Helena 
catalogue, to distribute the fifty-nine members of the fauna (to 
which I have already called attention) under the twelve great 
sections into which the Coleoptcra are usually supposed to arrange 
themselves. I am well aware that the paucity of the list itself, and 
perhaps likewise the totally unexplored state of the pools and 
sti earns, may be sufficient to account for many an apparent 
anomaly— such as, for instance, the complete absence of the water- 
beetles and Ht achelytra ; but still, after making every allowance 
for the manifest imperfection of the material, the broad fact does 
undoubtedly remain that the researches of Messrs. Melliss, Bewicke, 
and others (and that, too, whilst by no means neglecting the 
minuter groups) have brought to light more representatives of the 
Rhynchophora than of all the other departments combined. And 
that this is truly the case, a glance at the following table will 
suffice to show : — • 
