2 
U. S. P. R. R. EXP. AND SURVEYS-ZOOLOGY—47TH PARALLEL. 
Nearly one half of the species found in Russian America have become known to me by the 
kind exertions of my scientific friends, Baron Chaudoir and Colonel Motschulsky ; and to the 
latter I am indebted for his careful comparison of a set of the Californian Coleoptera collected 
by me, with the original types of Eschscholtz, Mannerheim, and Menetries, by which I have 
been enabled greatly to increase the accuracy of my investigations. 
The species which remain unknown to me are marked in the catalogue with an inverted 
comma before the locality, to show that they are placed in the catalogue on the authority of 
other writers. 
The materials present, for actual investigation, in compiling this report, are therefore: 
1. A series of more than two hundred species from Russian America, examined and named 
by Count Mannerheim, sent me by Baron Chaudoir. 
2. A smaller series, containing similar species, together with some Californian types of 
Eschscholtz, sent me by Colonel Motschulsky. 
3. About fifty species collected by the late J. K. Townsend, M. D., in Oregon, and given me 
by Mr. Edwin Willcox. 
4. A collection made at Fort Vancouver, by Colonel McCall. 
5. The collections of Dr. Cooper, made in various parts of Oregon, but chiefly at Vancouver 
and Shoalwater bay. 
6. The collections of Dr. Suckley, made principally at Steilacoom. 
7. A collection made by George Gibbs, esq., at Steilacoom. 
8. The collections made by myself, at San Francisco and San Jose. 
9. Two collections made in the valley of the Sacramento by Mr. J. Wittick, and presented to 
me by S. S. Rathvon, esq., of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. 
10. Two collections made, the one in the Sacramento valley, the other at San Francisco, by 
Mr. J. Child, also given me by Mr. Rathvon. 
11. A small but valuable collection from the vicinity of San Francisco, given me by Mr. J. 
P. Wild, of Baltimore. 
The Staphylinidae are represented in the catalogue by species previously described ; the new 
species collected by me are so numerous, and frequently so closely allied to species of the 
Atlantic slope of the continent, which are also undescribed, that it appears to me of no advan¬ 
tage to science to make them known separately, hut rather to await the opportunity of time to 
place them in a general synopsis of the Staphylinidae of the United States by genera and tribes. 
I have, however, made use of them in constructing the tables of distribution of genera, num¬ 
bered I and II. 
Several Curculionidae in my collection have not been described, for the reason that, with the 
arrangement given by Schonherr in his 1 Genera et Species Curculionidum,’ I am quite unable 
to refer them to appropriate genera, while the specific characters do not appear sufficiently 
remarkable to render them easily identified. 
The collections of Drs. Cooper and Suckley, as made during the survey of the 47th parallel, 
were placed in my hands for examination by the Smithsonian Institution, to which I am also 
under great obligations, for the opportunity of examining many other North American insects. 
The distribution of species in the northern part of the region which furnishes the materials 
for this report, presents no remarkable phenomenon. As in other northern lands, certain tribes 
like Adephaga, Staphylinidae, and Elateridae assume a greater preponderance in the fauna, 
from the fading out of the groups more characteristic of warmer climates, while a greater 
