CHAP. XIV.] 
ST. HELENA. 
287 
truly aborigines, and of these all but one are found nowhere else 
on the globe. But in addition to this large amount of specific 
peculiarity (perhaps unequalled anywhere else in the world) the 
beetles of this island are equally remarkable for their generic 
isolation, and for the altogether exceptional proportion in 
which the great divisions of the order are represented. The 
species belong to thirty -nine genera, of which no less than 
twenty-five are peculiar to the island ; and many of these are 
such isolated forms that it is impossible to find their allies in 
any particular country. Still more remarkable is the fact, that 
more than two-thirds of the whole number of indigenous species 
are Rhyncophora or weevils, while more than two-fifths (fifty- 
four species) belong to one family, the Cossonidse. Now although 
the Rhyncophora are an immensely numerous group and always 
form a large portion of the insect population, they nowhere 
else approach such a proportion as this. For example, in 
Madeira they form one -sixth of the whole of the indigenous 
Coleoptera, in the Azores less than one-tenth, and in Britain 
one-seventh. Even more interesting is the fact that the twenty 
genera to which these insects belong are every one of them 
peculiar to the island, and in many cases have no near allies 
elsewhere, so that we cannot but look on this group of beetles 
as forming the most characteristic portion of the ancient insect 
fauna. Now, as the great majority of these are wood borers, 
and all are closely attached to vegetation, and often to par- 
ticular species of plants, we might, as Mr. Wollaston well 
observes, deduce the former luxuriant vegetation of the island 
from the great preponderance of this group, even had we not 
positive evidence that it was at no distant epoch densely forest- 
clad. AVe will now proceed briefly to indicate the numbers 
and peculiarities of each of the families of beetles which enter 
into the St. Helena fauna, taking them, not in systematic order, 
but according to their importance in the island. 
1. Rhyncophora. — This great division includes the weevils 
and allied groups, and, as above stated, exceeds in number of 
species all the other beetles of the island. Four families are re- 
presented ; the Cossonidse, with fifteen peculiar genera comprising 
fifty-four species, and one minute insect ( Stenoscelis hylastoides ) 
