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to Australia and South America. The Nearctic and Palearctic regions have 3 genera in common, which are found in no other part of the world.

Among the special features of interest connected with the distribution of this family, we must first notice the exceptional richness of Madagascar, which alone possesses 21 peculiar genera. South Africa is also very rich, having 8 peculiar genera. Stethodesma is very peculiar, being divided between South America and Mexico on the one hand, and West and South Africa on the other. Stalagmosoma is a desert genus, ranging from Persia to Dongola. No genus is cosmopolitan, or even makes any approach to being so, except Valgus, which occurs in all the regions except the Neotropical; and even the family seems to be not universally distributed, since no species are recorded either from New Zealand, the Pacific Islands, or the Antilles.

The facts here brought forward, lead us to the conclusion that the Cetoniidæ are an Old-World tropical family, which had been well developed in Africa and Asia before it spread to Australia and America; and that it is only capable of being freely dispersed in the warmer regions of the earth. This view will explain the absence of affinity between the Australian and Neotropical regions, the only closer connection between which, has almost certainly occurred in the colder portions of the Temperate zone.

BUPRESTIDÆ. (109 Genera, 2,686 Species.)

The next family suited to our purpose is that of the Buprestidæ, consisting as it does of many large and some gigantic species, generally adorned with brilliant metallic' colours, and attracting attention in all warm countries. Although these insects attain their full development of size and beauty only in the Tropics, they are not much less abundant in the warmer parts of the Temperate zone. In the Catalogue of the Coleoptera of Europe and the Mediterranean Basin, by M. de Marseul (1863), we find 317 species of Buprestidæ enumerated, although

the district in question only forms a part of the Palearctic region, which would thus seem to possess its full proportion of the species of this family. Confining ourselves to the generic forms, we find far less difference than usual between the numbers possessed by the tropical and the temperate regions; the richest being the Australian, with 47 genera, 20 of which are peculiar; and the poorest the Nearctic, with 24 genera, of which 7 are peculiar. The Oriental has 41 genera, 14 of which are peculiar; the Neotropical 39, of which the large proportion of 18 are peculiar; the Ethiopian 27, of which 6 are peculiar; and the Palearctic also 27, but with 9 peculiar.

A most interesting feature in the distribution of this family, is the strong affinity shown to exist between the Australian and Neotropical regions, which have 4 genera common to both and found nowhere else; but besides this, the extensive and highly characteristic Australian genus, Stigmodera, is closely related to a number of peculiar South American genera, such as Conognatha, Hyperantha, Dactylozodes, the last altogether confined to Chili and Temperate South America. Here we have a striking contrast to the Cetoniidæ, and we can hardly help concluding, that, as the latter is typically a tropical group, so the present family, although now so largely tropical, had an early and perhaps original development in the temperate regions of Australia, spreading thence to Temperate South America as well as to the tropical regions of Asia and Africa. The Australian and Oriental regions have 4 genera exclusively in common, but they also each possess a number of peculiar or characteristic genera, such as the Indo-Malayan Catoxantha (which has only a single species in the Moluccas) and nine others of less importance; and the exclusively Austro-Malayan genus, Sambus, with five smaller groups, and Cyphogastra, with only 2 Indo-Malay species. The Oriental and Ethiopian regions are very distinct, only possessing the single genus, Sternocera, exclusively in common. The Nearctic and Palæarctic are also distinct, only one genus, Dicerca, being confined to America (North and South) and Europe, a fact which again points to a southern origin for this family, and its comparatively recent extension into the

North Temperate zone. It must be remembered, however, that in view of the immense geological antiquity of the existing families of Beetles, dating back certainly to the Secondary and probably to the Palæozoic epoch, "comparatively recent" may still be of considerable antiquity.

It is somewhat singular that North and South America have no genera exclusively in common. The connection between South America and Africa seems to be shown,-by the genus Psiloptera, the mass of the species being divided between these regions, with a few widely scattered over the globe; and the American genus Actenodes, which has one species in West Africa. Somewhat allied, is the extensive genus Polybothris, strictly confined to Madagascar. The genus Agrilus is perhaps cosmopolitan, although no species of the family is recorded from New Zealand. Among the peculiarities of distribution we may notice, the genus Sponsor, with 8 species in the island of Mauritius, 1 in Celebes, and 1 in New Guinea; Ptosima, scattered between the United States, Mendoza in South Temperate America, South Europe, the Philippine Islands, and North China; Polycesta, which besides inhabiting South America, North America, and Europe, has a single species in Madagascar ; and Belionota, which has 8 species African, 8 Indo-Malayan, 2 Austro-Malayan, and 1 in California. The extensive genus Acmæodera, is most abundant in the warm and dry portions of the Palearctic, Ethiopian, and Nearctic regions, with some in the Andes and South Temperate America, a few in Brazil and the West Indies, and 1 said to be from the Philippines. About one-third of the genera (containing more than half the species) have a tolerably extensive range, while the genera confined to single regions contain only about one-fourth of the total number of species.

It will, I think, be admitted, after a careful study of the preceding facts, that the regions and sub-regions here adopted, serve to exhibit, with great clearness, the chief phenomena of distribution presented by this interesting family.

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LONGICORNIA. (1,488 Genera, 7,576 Species).

The elegant and admired group of the Longicorn Beetles, is treated by continental authors as a single family, consisting of three sub-divisions-the Prionidæ, Cerambycidæ, and Lamiidæ of English entomologists. These are so closely related, and are so similar in form, habits, and general distribution, that it will be best to consider the whole as one group, noticing whatever peculiarities occur in the separate divisions. The endless structural differences among these insects, have led to their being classed in an unusual number of genera, which average little more than 5 species each; a number far below that in any of the other families we have been considering, and probably below that which obtains in any of the more extensive groups of animals or plants. This excessive subdivision of the genera, a large number of which consist of only one or two species, renders it difficult to determine with precision the relations of the several regions, since the affinities of these genera for each other are in many cases undetermined. A group of such enormous extent as this, can only be properly understood after years of laborious study; we must therefore content ourselves with such results as may be obtained from a general survey of the group, and from a comparison of the range of the several genera, by means of a careful tabulation of the mass of details given in the recent Catalogue of Messrs. Gemminger and Harold and the noble work of Lacordaire.

The proportionate extent of the three families of Longicorns is very unequal; the Prionidæ comprising about 7 per cent., the Cerambycidæ 44 per cent., and the Lamiida 49 per cent. of the total number of species; and the genera are nearly in the same proportions, being almost exactly 10, 40, and 50 per cent. of the whole, respectively; or, 135 Prionidæ, 609 Cerambycidæ, and 746 Lamiidæ. The several regions, however, present marked differences in their proportions of these families. In the two North Temperate regions, the Cerambycidae are considerably more numerous than the Lamiidæ, in the proportion of about 12 to

9; and in this respect the Neotropical region agrees with them, though the superiority in the proportion of Cerambycidæ is somewhat less. In the Old World tropical regions, however, and in Australia, the Lamiidæ greatly preponderate-being nearly double in the Oriental and Ethiopian regions (or as 11 to 6), while in the Australian it is as 6 to 5. The Prionida show a similar difference, though in a less degree; being proportionately more numerous in the North Temperate and Neotropical regions. Now, as regards the North Temperate regions, this difference can be, to some extent explained, by a difference in the habits of the insects. The Lamiidæ, which both in the larva and perfect state have exceedingly powerful jaws, exclusively frequent timber trees, and almost always such as are dead; while the Cerambycidæ, are generally more delicate and have weaker mandibles, and many of the species live on shrubs, dead twigs, foliage, and even on flowers. The immense superiority of the Tropics in the number and variety of their timber trees, and the extent of their forests, sufficiently accounts for their superiority to the Temperate regions in the development of Lamiida; but the great excess of Cerambycidæ in South America as compared with the rest of the Tropics, is not to be so readily explained.

Bearing in mind the different proportions of the families, as above noted, we may now consider the distribution of the Longicorns as a whole. In number of generic forms, the Neotropical region, as in so many other groups, has a marked superiority. It possesses 516 genera, 489 of which (or about 18 of the whole) are peculiar to it. The Australian and Oriental regions come next, and are exactly equal, both possessing 360 genera, and having almost exactly the same proportion (in each case a little less than ) peculiar. The Ethiopian region has 262 genera, with about & peculiar; the Palæarctic 196, with 51 (rather more than 1) peculiar; and the Nearctic 111, with 59 (a little more than half) peculiar. The more isolated of the sub-regions are also well characterised by peculiar genera. Thus, Chili with Temperate South America possesses 37, a large proportion being Cerambycidae; the Malagasi group 26,

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