Coleoptera Sanctæ-Helenæ

Preface

It is not without some hesitation that I have thought it desirable to publish in a separate volume the result of a six months' inquiry, in situ, into the Coleopterous statistics of St. Helena; but the fact of our sojourn in that island having been exceptionally favourable, — apartments having been granted to us, through the kind recommendation of the Earl of Carnarvon to His Excellency the Governor, at Plantation House (the most convenient of spots for visiting the various portions of the great central ridge), — I am sanguine enough to hope that the following account, brief though it be, may embody an approximately complete summary of what still remains of one of the most characteristic and isolated little faunas in the world. That a good deal remains yet to be done I would not wish to deny ; for the remarkable segregation of the majority of the species at St. Helena (far surpassing what I have ever witnessed elsewhere) renders it absolutely essential that each separate district should be carefully overhauled before the conclusions subsequently to be arrived at can be looked upon as final, and the shortness of our stay did not permit of our reaching some few localities which were both distant and difficult of access. But the constantly repeated raids (for I can find no term more appropriate) which we were in the habit of making

IV

PREFACE.

on the more important and profitable regions, particularly those in which the aboriginal vegetation yet survives, encourages me to suspect that we have at any rate gleaned a sufficiency of the firs tfruits to warrant a safe generalization on the peculiarities of the fauna ; and it is with this conviction that I offer the present catalogue, — trusting only that the time will assuredly arrive, and that at no distant epoch, when it will be both increased and tested by the researches of future naturalists.

The recent publication by Mr. Melliss of a most praiseworthy endeavour to bring together what had already been accomplished by others on the Natural History of St. Helena, adding to it the result of his own individual labours*, relieves me from the necessity of regarding the present volume as more than a second step towards the ultimatum at which we are both of us equally anxious to arrive, — namely a thorough knowledge of the productions (in this especial instance, however, pertaining to the Coleoptera only) of an island which is unusually remote, and which therefore, geographically considered, possesses a surpassing amount of interest; and although he had the kindness to transmit to me, from time to time, for description in the English periodicals, the several species which he himself met with, I have in every instance, by referring to his lately issued work, made it quite plain which of them were due in the first instance to his researches, and which have been added subsequently by our own.

It merely remains for me to express my warmest thanks to those who have lent me a helping hand in arriving at the

* St. Helena : a Physical, Historical, and Topographical Description of the Island. By John Charles Melliss, A.I.C.E., F.G.S., F.L.S. — London: L. Reeve & Co. 1875.

PREFACE.

V results which are embodied in this short memoir, — and first and foremost to my old friend and fellow-collector John Gray, who was .the prime instigator of our St. -Helena trip, and whose sojourn with us at Plantation during the first month of our visit was the means of adding so many novelties to our then incipient but fast-increasing list. It was owing to Mr. Gray^s devotion to the cause of natural science that I had the opportunity of exploring, in his yachts the c Miranda , and f Garland/ now many years ago, the numerous outlying islands of the Canarian and Cape- Verde archipelagos ; and although on this particular occasion he had no longer his own vessel in which to convey us, yet a compagnon de voyage so true to the cause, and so thoroughly experienced in the ways and means for collecting, could not fail to render his cooperation in the highest degree valuable.

The uniform courtesy which we received from His Excellency the Governor, H. P. Janisch, Esq., during our entire stay at St. Helena, must not remain unnoticed; for it was to his kindness that we owed, in a large measure, the success of our expedition ; and the genuine assistance which, as a keen observer himself in the higher departments of physical inquiry, he had it in his power to render us, was never on any single occasion withheld.

Amongst our numerous friends who were ever ready to further the object of our trip, the Pev. H. Whitehead and his son claim more than a passing word of thanks ; for without the aid of the latter, at least nine of the species which are cited in the present volume would have been omitted altogether. The accurate knowledge possessed by Mr. Whitehead of the botany of the island, and his general appreciation of all that is new and interesting in the various departments of zoology, marked him out from the first as a

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PREFACE.

naturalist from whom we might reasonably expect to receive local information of no ordinary kind ; whilst to the activity and sharp-sightedness of his son I am indebted for the exploration of several remote districts which I had neither the time nor the physical strength to visit. Indeed the Scrubwood fauna (embracing the species which are attached to that singular and viscous arborescent Composite the fast-disappearing Aster glutinosus, Roxb.) may be said to have been almost solely in the hands, hitherto, of Mr. P. Whitehead, — whose exertions on the Barn and elsewhere have brought to light several novelties which would otherwise have escaped my notice ; and considering that he has forwarded to me many consignments since our departure from the island, I may fairly venture to hope that a few significant additions to the catalogue may even yet be made through his instrumentality.

Having already had the privilege of placing upon record, so far at least as that was practicable, the Coleopterous insects of the Madeiran, Canadian, and Cape-Verde archipelagos, I can only hope that the St. -Helena list, although necessarily less extensive, will not be found, on the whole, to be less accurate than those which I was enabled to compile in connexion with the more northern groups.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

1. HE extreme isolation of St. Helena — which is nearly 1200 miles from the nearest point of the African continent, 1800 from that of South America, and about 700 from even the small and barren island of Ascension — gives it a degree of importance which it would not otherwise possess ; for about the faunas of remote islands cluster, in an especial manner, a variety of problems, which, although they may never be absolutely solved, may yet be brought, by a series of carefully conducted observations, within the sphere of discussion, and be made to throw some addititional light, however faint, on the general questions of geographical zoology. From whatever point of view we look at them, — and there are many which at once suggest themselves along the distinct, but ultimately converging, lines of thought, — the statistics of an oceanic rock, far removed from the ordinary effects of immigration and change, and bearing more or less of the impress which was stamped upon it by its aboriginal forms of life, have an interest about them which it is scarcely possible to overrate. How the organisms, as we now see them, came to occupy their present areas of distribution, — to what extent they ’are or seem to be “ related ” to those of the nearest mainland, — whether there is evidence for believing that they have changed to any considerable extent, in their outward configuration, from the types of which they may be presumed by some naturalists to be the remote descendants, — or whether there is reason to suspect that the Hand which originally placed them where they are adapted

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INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

each separate species to the conditions which it was destined to fulfil, subjecting one and all of them to a law of permanence under which they can never very materially alter, — are but a tithe of the questions which, if not capable of being answered positively, we may at least ventilate and probe, not • altogether without profit, in even a small treatise like the present one ; for it cannot be too carefully borne in mind that, within the limited sphere where mere speculation (as such) seems likely to have any permanent value, it is to facts, and not to theories, that we must ultimately appeal.

The deep-sea soundings around St. Helena — no bottom having apparently been reached, a mile and a half from the present coast, at a depth of 250 fathoms, whilst only about 60 or 70 fathoms seems to be the average depth within that sublittoral zone — may be considered perhaps to discourage at the outset, when taken in conjunction with the fact of its manifestly volcanic origin, any d prion idea that the island as we now view it is but the small remaining fragment of a once widely-extended land. Bather should we be inclined to suspect, from the evidence to which we have access, that the abrupt encircling ledge to which I have just called attention marked, in all probability, the outer limits of the original basaltic mass, as finally built up by successive eruptions, and which has been gradually worn away by the disintegrating action of the elements to its present slightly reduced dimensions. But, whatever be its force we will not he hampered by any such consideration even as this ; for my object in these introductory remarks is not to enter into geological problems, with which I am not immediately concerned, but simply to draw such deductions from the Coleopterous data per se as appear to me to be most in accordance with the phenomena as absolutely ascertained ; and, keeping this steadily therefore in view, I shall proceed by successive approximations so far to analyze the material which has hitherto been brought to light as to make it tell, whenever that is possible, and without any undue colouring of mine, its own tale.

If we cast an eye down the catalogue as given at the close of the present volume, we shall find that the 203* species which are there recorded distribute themselves in the following proportions, under

* Only 202, it will be seen, are indicated by the numbers as given in the catalogue. But this is merely due to the fact that one of the species (the Cossyphod.es Wollastonii ) was sent to me too late for insertion in its proper place in the text ; and, as I did not wish to make the numbers of the latter disagree with those of the general list, I thought it better to enter it as “ 39*.”

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

IX the great primary sections into which the Coleoptera are usually supposed to be subdivided : —

Rhynchopkora

Necrophaga

Brachelytra .. . . .

Geodephao-a

Fleteromera

Priocerata

Lamellicornia

Pseudotrimera

Phytophaga

Philhydrida

Lonaicornia

Trickoptervgia

Hydradephaga

From which we gather the remarkable fact, not only that the water-beetles are absolutely unrepresented, and that too in an island which affords every condition necessary for their subsistence, and in which the streams and pools must have been far more abundant formerly than now, but that the Bhynchophora (which contains the weevils) so far out-balances every other department that it numbers a little more than half of the entire Coleopterous fauna. However, since the organisms of every country are made up largely of ones which have been accidentally naturalized, and which have no real connexion with the autochthones of the soil, it follows that, in order to obtain a true estimate of the latter, we must endeavour to eliminate, so far as is possible, those which were manifestly introduced ; and, fortunately, to almost any experienced naturalist, who is acquainted with the modus vivencli and the respective ranges of the more or less cosmopolitan forms, this first clearing-out is seldom difficult. Thus, in the instance before us, out of the 203 species which have been brought to light at St. Helena, there are certainly 57 which we can have no doubt whatsoever must originally have been conveyed into the island through various external media , and have since established themselves. These 57 are as follows : —

Dactylosternum abdominale, Fab.

Aleochara puberula, Klug.

Homalota coriaria, Kraatz.

Philonthus longicornis, Stepk.

Philonthus discoideus, Fab.

nigritulus, Grav.

Creophilus maxillosus, Linn.

Lithocharis ochracea, Grav.

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INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

Lithocharis debilicornis, Woll.

Oxytelus sculptus, Gray.

Trogopbloens corticinus, Grav.

Carpopliilus dimidiatus, Fab.

hemipterus, Linn.

Monotoma spinicollis, Aub6.

picipes, Ilbst.

Trogosita mauritanica, Linn.

Lgemophloeus carinulatus, Woll.

pusillus, Schon.

Silvanus surinamensis, Linn.

Cryptophagns badius, St.

affinis, St.

Anonmiatus 12-striatus, Midi.

Corticaria elongata, Gyll.

Latridius nodifer, Westw.

approximate, Woll.

Mycetea kirta, Gyll.

Typksea fumata, Linn.

Dermestes cadaverinus, Fab.

vulpinus, Fab.

Attagenus gloriosae, Fab.

Saprinus bicolor. Fab.

Apkodius granarius, Linn.

lividus, Oliv.

Corynetes rufipes, Fab.

Gibbium scotias, Fab.

Anobium velatum, Woll.

panice urn, Linn.

domesticum, Fourc.

Rhizopertha bifoveolata, Woll.

pusilla, Fab.

Hylurgus ligniperda, Fab.

Plilceophagus seneopiceus, Bokm.

Calandra oryzse, Linn.

Otiorkynckus sulcatus, Fab.

Sitona lineatus, Linn.

Arseocerus fasciculatus, De G.

Bruckus rufobrunneus, Woll.

ad vena, Woll.

Curtomerus pilicornis, Fab.

Coptus bidens, Fab.

Sericoderus lateralis, Gyll.

Grtlioperus atomarius, Heer.

Alpkitobius diaperinus, KugeL

piceus, Oliv.

Gnatkocerus cornutus, Fab.

Tribolium ferrugineum, Fab.

Tenebrio obscurus, Fab.

Now I would wish tkis list to be very carefully scrutinized, because I am satisfied tkat tkere is not a single species amongst the wkole 57 wkich kas tke sligktest claim to be regarded as primevally St.-Helenian ; indeed, tke majority of tkem are well-nigk cosmopolitan, following in tke track of man, and suck as figure in tke fauna of nearly every civilized country, and we may tkerefore safely remove tkem from tke general catalogue. Let us consequently do tkis, and tken see wketker tke relative proportions of tke various departments (as represented by the 146 species which remain) are affected to any considerable extent.

Rhynchophora Geodepkaga .

Brachelytra .

Heteromera .

Lamellicornia .

Pseudotrimera

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

XI

Necrophaga 4

Pliytopliaga 4

Priocerata . . . 3

Trichopterygia 1

Philhydrida 1

Longicornia 0

Hydradepliaga 0

Here, then, in this second approximation to what we are compelled to regard as representing (at the present time) the aboriginal fauna, the results are even still more pronounced : for whilst the Longicorns have, like the water-beetles, been reduced to zero, the weevils, on the other hand, head the catalogue to an extent even greater (relatively) than before, — numbering about two-thirds of the whole Coleopterous population.

There are however 17 species (three of them Rlvynchophora ) which we may he almost certain were, in the first instance, brought accidentally into the island, — four indeed ( Cyclonotum dytiscoides , Fab., Aspidomorphci miliar is, Fab., Epilachna clirysomelina , Fab., and Cydonia vicinia , Muls.) possessing but slender claims for having ever been found at St. Helena at all ; and, although I have given them in the above enumeration the advantage of the doubt, I cannot but feel that their true right to represent any portion of the quondam fauna is infinitesimally small. They are as follows : —

Pristonychus complanatus, Dej.

Cyclonotum dytiscoides, Fab.

Philonthus turbidus, Erich.

Cossyphodes Wollastonii, West.

Cryptamorpka musse, Woll.

Tribal us 4-striatus, Woll.

Trox Whiteheadii, Woll.

Adoretus versutus, Har. lleteronychus arator, Fab.

Tomicus semulus, Woll.

Stenoscelis hylastoides, Woll.

Sciobius subnodosus, Woll.

Aspidomorpha miliaris, Fab.

Chilomenes vicina, Muls.

Thea variegata, Fab.

Epilachna clirysomelina, Fab.

Zophobas concolor, Woll.

I think, therefore, that we may safely remove these 17 members also of the present fauna, as having no connexion with the aboriginal one ; and the 129 which are then left, and which there is every reason to suspeot are the veritable descendants of the “ autochthones of the soil,” distribute themselves thus : —

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INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

Rhynchophora 91

Geodephaga 14

Heteromera 6

Brachelytra * 6

Priocerata 3

Pliytophaga 3

Lamellicornia 2

Pseudotrimera 2

Trichopterygia 1

Necrophaga 1

Pliilhydrida 0

Longicomia 0

Hydradepliaga 0

Now, although it is undeniable that these 129 species are but a small assortment as compared with the 203 which have been enumerated in the present volume, and which presumably exist (or have lately existed) in the island, yet, if our speculations concerning the character of the aboriginal fauna are to be worth the paper on which they are written, it is evident that we must remove, first of all, those more or less cosmopolitan organisms which (whether by indirect human agencies or not) have manifestly been introduced. Por even if any degree of doubt should still attach to a few of these 129 which ultimately remain (and I think that the evidence for each of them is too decisive to admit of much uncertainty), it is nevertheless so small as to be practically inappreciable ; and our conclusions from a reduced number which has been well sifted and carefully ascertained are more likely to be reliable than those which we might attempt to deduce from a much greater medley of unsorted, equivocal, and recently naturalized forms. Indeed it has often seemed to me that the arguments of many naturalists on so-called “ geographical distribution ” have been much invalidated by the fact of these promiscuous (and utterly unmeaning ) species not having been sufficiently eliminated before their ultimate comments have been given to the world ; for organisms, the presence of which in any country is clearly due to fortuitous circumstances of a comparatively recent date, can possess no kind of significance, nor have any claim to be looked upon as “ aboriginal and I may further add that they can seldom be confounded by any experienced naturalist with the “ autochthones of the soil.”

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

Xlll

The faunas of remote oceanic islands are never very extensive, — being characterized to a greater or less degree by gaps, or omissions, occasioned by the absence of certain well-known types with which we are elsewhere familiar. St. Helena, as might indeed be anticipated from the remoteness of its position, offers no exception to this rule, but quite the reverse, — whole families and departments, which wo are accustomed to regard as well-nigh cosmopolitan, having not so much as a solitary witness ; and if we accept the 129 species to which I have just called attention, as shadowing forth (by what is still left) the original beetle population, we shall observe that all the water-loving tribes (whether Hydraclephaga or Philhydrida) and the vast group of Longicorns have not an exponent, whilst even the Lamellicorns and Necropliaga , so universally distributed over the world, are all but absent. Indeed the section of the weevils is the only one which is well represented ; and that, considering the smallness of the area to which it pertains, is unduly expressed, — numbering nearly three- fourths of the entire Coleopterous fauna !

However, we must approach the subject a little nearer even yet, and see if the numerous members of the Rhynchophora , which are strictly indigenous (amounting to no less than 91), divulge anything that is remarkable, and supply evidence for legitimate conclusions. Again referring to the catalogue, we shall find that they distribute themselves, under four distinct families, thus : —

Cossonidae 54

Tanyrhynchidae 10

Trachyphloeidae 1

Anthribidae 26

Thus, with the exception of a single insignificant little Trachyphlceid and ten members of the Tanyrhynchidce (which in their mere habits are scarcely separable from the Cossonidce ), the whole of these 91 exponents of the Rhynchophora are either Cossonids or Anthribids, — the latter numbering 26 species, and the former 54 ! Here, then, is a point on which it may be worth while, for a few moments, to dwell. A minute island, which has been almost cleared of its native timber (said to have been once luxuriant), and which presents, except in a few favoured districts in the interior and on the summits (and inaccessible slopes) of the high central ridge, scarcely more than a blackened mass of basaltic rock and hardened

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INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

volcanic mud, is nevertheless more richly stocked, even now, with wood-boring weevils and foliage-loving Anthribids than probably any other spot of equal area (whether insular or continental) in the world ! In England, for example, out of a Coleopterous fauna numbering more than 3000 members, nine only belong to the Cossonidce ; whilst at St. Helena (where we will, for the moment, take the modern list as more truly representing the present English one), out of 203 exponents of the Coleoptera, 54 (or considerably more than a quarter ) are included in that particular family !

There have been some writers on the island who have not thought it beneath them to scoff at the old records which tell us, as plainly as words can be made to tell, of forests and rank herbage covering whole tracts of mountain-slopes, and upland plains, which have subsequently been reduced to comparative desolation, — converted gradually by troops of hungry goats and the still more vicious practice of the inhabitants of permitting the indigenous trees to be chopped down ruthlessly for fuel, into a chaos of scoriae ; but to my mind no more damaging paraphrase could be suggested on the dicta of these amiable critics than the ascertained fact that a mere “ cinderheap ” happens nevertheless to be more copiously supplied with lignivorous and vegetation -loving types than perhaps any similarsized area in the world. Ono author indeed, after throwing discredit on the positive assertions of the late Governor Beatson, thus sarcastically delivers himself : — “ It may also occur to an impartial observer that the site once so 'prolific is now little more than bare rock ; that there is scarcely sufficient soil on any part of it to nourish or support anything less satisfied on such points than a prickly pear ; and the question arises most naturally, — What has become of the soil that such a forest must have had for its roots ? * ” I wonder it should never have occurred to him that when once the trees had been destroyed, and the long-continued nibbling of the goats had succeeded in annihilating every fresh sapling as it made its appearance, even the roots would at last perish ; under which circumstances the soil (being no longer held together as before) would be gradually washed away by the violence of the tropical rains, — leaving the faces of the rock to a great extent, and in places sufficiently steep, bare and exposed. Indeed this binding power of roots is illustrated to a demonstration, even at the present day, on

* Saint Helena ; by a Bird of Passage, [p. 55]. London : lloulston & Wright, 1865.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

XV the high central ridge, where almost perpendicular precipices in the most tempestuous and weather-beaten spots are able to retain upon them sufficient soil to nourish a most profuse herbage and perfectly gigantic examples of the various arborescent Composite e. But once cut down the trees (were it possible to get at them, which happily it is not), and turn in the goats for a few generations to nibble every thing to the ground which had the power of germinating, and what would be the result ? Simply that even the roots would slowly decay and the soil be gradually washed down, leaving abrupt declivities and the denuded faces of basaltic dykes, where only a century before there was (as now) a dense and well-nigh unbroken forest of cabbage-trees and asters. I do not see, therefore, that it evinces any wonderful amount of acumen to disbelieve records, plainly stated and given to us in all good faith, simply because the present aspect of the country has so altered that we cannot understand how they should be true ; but, on the contrary, I will further declare that, even had no such records ever existed at all, the redundancy at St. Helena of the wood-infesting and herbage-loving forms of life, added to the extreme scarcity of the Heteromerous ones, would of itself have suggested to my mind an island of wood and verdure in terms so unequivocal that it is quite impossible to mistake them.

It may, however, be urged that the exponents of the Rhynchophora are everywhere phytophagous in their modes of life, and point to the presence of herbage (in some shape or other), but not more so at St. Helena than in other countries ; to which I would reply that a perfectly overwhelming majority of the St.-Helenian Rhynchophora are over and above what may be called mere attendants on vegetation ; they are essentially wood-borers. Comparative^ few of the Cossonidce ever attach themselves to herbaceous plants ; and although a certain number occur within the rotten stems of the larger ferns and the pithy branches of low-growing shrubs, by far the greater mass reside beneath the bark of trees, requiring solid timber for their subsistence ; and we may safely assert that no country which is so anomalously crowded as St. Helena is with Cossonids could be (or could have been) otherwise, in the main, than a land of ivood. But, apart from this consideration, even the ordinary herbage-loving weevils (which the St.-Helenian Rhynchophora are not), when developed to an excess , would imply at any rate a corresponding redundancy of vegetation to nourish them ; and as this cannot be

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said to have any existence now in the island, a totally different state of things from what we at present recognize is, even from this lower (and less accurate) point of view , imperatively demanded. But the complete overplus of the Rhynchophora , in conjunction with the fact that an absolutely astounding proportion of them are wood-borers, form, when taken together, the basis for an argument which is, to my mind at least, irresistible *.

Perhaps a word or two may be said, in this particular place, about the Anthribids, which are so characteristic of St. Helena, and which constitute so important an item (in fact the most important next to the Cossoniclce ) in the Coleopterous fauna. Although probably lignivorous in their earlier stages, the Anthribidce cannot be defined as, in any sense, wood-borers. They occur essentially upon foliage , or adhering to dead trunks and sticks, to which their rather broadly expanded feet give them a considerable power of clinging. But it so happens that nearly the whole of them at St. Helena (and they number no less than 26 species, indeed almost certainly more) are attached either to the numerous arborescent Compositce or else to the tree ferns ; for if a few, which are more plastic in their nature, have been able, like some of the Cossonklce , to adapt themselves, since the complete destruction in certain districts of the indigenous timber, to other trees, it is quite manifest that they are normally attendant on the strictly endemic vegetation. So that while the Cossonids tell distinctly of a more or less wooded land (their perfectly prodigious development implying, in all probability, a very wooded one), the Anthribids take up the story, and show by their extraordinary numbers and variety of structure how that they occupied the place of the Phytophaga (a section which is itself but feebly expressed) amongst the native foliage — whether of trees or Cryptogams. And we might therefore picture St. Helena, in the remote past, as a densely-wooded island, in which the Cossonids and Anthribids did the work of destruction amongst the tree ferns and Compositce , on a gigantic scale, unaided by the Longicorn tribes — but where the streams and pools, far more copious than now, had no water-loving forms to tenant them, and where nearly every other

* I would wish it to be observed that in the above remarks I have even understate the case rather than otherwise ; for the ten members of the Tanyrhynchidce have precisely the same lignivorous habits as the Cossonids ; so that every truly aboriginal exponent of the St.-Helenian Rhynchophora, with the exception of the little Trachypkloeosoma setosum , tells the same tale, — that of a once wooded land.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

XY11 primary division of the Coleoptera, except perhaps the Geodephaga (which had the great Haplothorax as its most gigantic exponent, and a group of very anomalous Bembidia on the damp and reeking summits of the central ridge), was but faintly shadowed forth. A few Htteromera indeed inhabited the drier and more barren districts ; but we have no evidence of the multitude of familiar types which are more or less present in nearly every continental land.

Considering how greatly the island has deteriorated since the well-nigh complete destruction of its native trees, there can belittle doubt that many an aboriginal link of the Coleopterous chain, which was not able to adapt itself to the altered circumstances of the country, must have perished ; and it will probably therefore be said that the above analysis does not convey a true idea of the primeval organisms. But, as regards the question of extinction or non-extinction, I would wish to observe that all the departments would have an equal chance of suffering alike, and that we have no right therefore to argue from the fact of one of them being still largely represented that it did not take its share in the general catastrophe which overwhelmed the rest. Indeed in this particular instance the presumption is altogether the other way ; for seeing that it was by the wholesale rooting-out of the indigenous vegetation that the local influences were altered for the worse, it would certainly seem to follow that the phytophagous forms are the ones which would feel the consequences most severely ; whereas they are the very types which are now present to an absolute excess. My own belief is that they did suffer, and, beyond all doubt, most of all, and that their exaggerated numbers even now would simply imply that there was a still greater redundancy of them aboriginally, and that the further we go back into the past the stronger would be our case as regards the unusual dominance of those particular aspects of Coleopterous life. Indeed, when we bear in mind that the whole of them would seem to have been attached, in the first instance, to the endemic trees and shrubs, it is impossible to resist the conviction that the total disappearance of the native ebony ( Melhania melanodendron , Ait.) and the all but annihilation of the redwood (. Melhania erythroxylon , Ait.), the Psiadia rotundifolia , Hk. f., and the island boxwood ( Mellissia begonicefolia, Hk. f.) must have resulted in the wiping-out of many a lignivorous organism which was once abundant ; whilst the fast-disappearing asters and gumwoods, around which a whole troup of Cossonids may be said to cluster, tell a tale of what a few more generations may accomplish,—