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502 GEOGRAPHICAL ZOOLOGY. [part iv.
Borneo, Java, Amboyna and South Australia ; Phyton has one
species in North America and the other in Ceylon; Philage-
tes has 2 in South Africa, and 1 in Malacca : Toxotus abounds
in North America and Europe, with one species away in Mada-
gascar. Leptttra is also North Temperate, but has a species at
the Cape, one at Singapore and a third in Celebes. ISecydalis
has species in North and South America, Europe and Australia.
Hylotrupes has 1 species in North America and Europe, and 1 in
Australia ; Leptocera prefers islands, being found only in Ceylon,
Madagascar, Bourbon, Batchian, the New Hebrides, New
Caledonia and North Australia ; Hathliodes is Australian, with
1 species in Ceylon ; Schcenionta has 3 Malayan species, and 1
in Natal. Many other cases equally curious could be quoted,
but these are sufficient. They cannot be held to indicate any
close relation between the distant countries in which species of
the same genus are now found, but perhaps serve to remind
us that groups of great antiquity, and probably of great extent,
haVe dwindled away, leaving a few surviving relics scattered far
and wide, the sole proofs of their former predominance.
General Observations on the Distribution of Coleoptera.
We have now passed in review six of the most important and
best known groups of the Coleoptera or Beetles, comprising
about 2,400 genera, and more than 21,000 species. Although
presenting certain peculiarities and anomalies, we have found
that, on the whole, their distribution is in very close accordance
with that of the higher animals. We have seen reason to
believe that these great and well-marked groups have a high
geological antiquity, and by constantly bearing this fact in mind,
we can account for many of the eccentricities of their distribu-
tion. They have probably survived changes of physical geo-
graphy which have altogether extinguished many of the more
highly organised animals, and we may perhaps gain some insight
into the bearing of those changes, by considering the cross rela-
tions between the several regions indicated by them. On care-
fully tabulating the indications given by each of the groups here
discussed, I arrive at the following approximate result. The