INTRODUCTION. 
5 
on tliis intricate question : and to any person who has a practical knowledge of the 
localities themselves, I think that the following numbers (unequal as they are) 
will not appear to be inconsistent with the opposite dimensions and aspects of the 
various portions of the cluster to which they respectively refer. Thus, in Madeira 
proper I have (up to the present period) ascertained 432 species to have occurred, 
in Porto Santo 111, on the Dezerta Grande 57, on the Northern Dezerta (or Ilheo 
Chao) lo, and on the Southern Dezerta (or Ilheo Bugio) 4. Or, if we choose to 
regard the Dezertas as one, the group will separate itself into three natural divi¬ 
sions ; and we shall have for Madeira proper 432, for the Dezertas 61, and for 
Porto Santo 111. Of the 61 species which I have found on the Dezertas, 44 have 
been detected in Madeira and 29 in Porto Santo. The species which (so far as I 
have been able to ascertain) are peculiar to Madeira proper are 340, to Porto 
Santo 32, to the Dezerta Grande 6, to the Ilheo Chao 3, and to the Ilheo Bugio 0. 
The only insects of the existence of which I have been enabled to satisfy myself 
for certain on every island are the Scarites abbreviatus and the Laparocerus morio ; 
nevertheless I am all hut convinced that the Calathus complanatm, Harpalus 
vividus and the Hadrus cinerascens (if we consider the II. illotus as its Porto 
Santan analogue) are equally universal: whilst, at the same time, they may be 
regarded, in conjunction with the Tarns lineatus, Dromins obscuroguttatns , 
Olisthopus Maderensis , Omias ventrosus, Helops Pluto and confertus, and the 
Ant Incus tristis, as amongst the species which are the most abundant individually 
of all with which we are concerned. 
Taking a cursory view of the Coleoptera here described, the fauna may perhaps 
he pronounced as having a greater affinity with that of Sicily than of any other 
country which has been hitherto properly investigated. Apart from the large 
number of our genera (and even species) which are diffused over more or less of 
the entire Mediterranean basin, this is especially evinced in some of the most cha¬ 
racteristic forms,—such as Apotomits, Xenostrongylus, Tarphius, Cholovocera, IIolo- 
paramecus, Berginus, Litargus, Thorictus and Boromorphus. There is moreover, 
strange though it may appear to be, some slight (though decided) collective assi¬ 
milation with what we observe in the south-western extremity of our own country 
and of Ireland,—nearly all the species which are common to Madeira and the 
British Isles being found in those particular regions; whilst one point of coin¬ 
cidence at any rate, and of a very remarkable nature, has been fully discussed 
(vid. p. 320) under Mesites. Whether or not this partial parallelism may be 
employed to further Professor E. Forbes’s theory of the quondam approximation, 
by means of a continuous land, of the Kerry and Gallician hills, and of a huge 
miocene continent extending beyond the Azores, and including all these Atlantic 
clusters within its embrace, I will not venture to suggest: nevertheless it is im¬ 
possible to deny that, so far as the Madeiras betoken, everything would go to 
favour this grand and comprehensive idea. Partaking in the amain of a Mediter¬ 
ranean fauna, the northern tendency of which is in the evident -direction of the 
