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Show 360 MR. G. R. CROTCH ON AZOREAN COLEOPTERA. [Mar. 28, neighbouring groups of Madeira and the Canaries. The exploration of these, however, is due almost entirely to the laborious and unremitting exertions of Mr. T. V. Wollaston, who has devoted himself to working out the Coleopterous fauna of the Atlantic region with a care and perseverance that, unfortunately, finds too few imitators. The fourth group, viz. the Cape de Verde Isles, have also been recently explored by him, and have produced a magnificent series of novelties. It is with considerable pleasure, then, that I am able, through the kindness and liberality of Mr. Godman, to supplement his researches with an enumeration of the Azorean Coleoptera. Our previous knowledge of this group of islands was very limited, but will be found admirably summed up in M . Drouet's ' Elements de la Faune Aeoreenne.' Indeed it is to him and his companion M . Morelet that we owe any detail of the insects, shells, &c. at all. Of Coleoptera he enumerates fifty-nine, and comments upon their European character, five only being peculiar; these were described in part by M. Tarnier in M . Morelet's ' Notice sur 1'histoire naturelle des iles Ar-ores;' and one (Lapar. azoricus) by M . Drouet himself in his ' Coleoptcres Acoreens.' The remaining species cited by him are of the most ordinary character, and show certainly the cultivated state of the islands. In 1865, however, Mr. Godman undertook a voyage to these islands with a view to get a more satisfactory resume of their fauna; and in order that the Coleoptera might receive due attention, he was accompanied by an energetic and well-known English collector, Mr. J. A. Brewer. They arrived at S. Miguel on the 21st of March, and remained there a month. On the 21st of April they visited Terceira for a day, and went on to Fayal; thence they crossed, with some difficulty, to Flores and Corvo. After this Mr. Godman was obliged to return; but his collector (Mr. Brewer) subsequently visited Sta. Maria, though it was then somewhat late in the season. The material thus amassed was liberally placed in m y hands by Mr. Godman to be worked out; and it shows a very great advance upon that of M M . Drouet and Morelet, including as it does 213 species, of which thirteen are new to science, and thirty-seven new to the Atlantic district, and redeems the fauna from its purely European character. Of the nine islands, three remain practically unvisited-one, indeed (Pico), being probably the best island for characteristic species, being much the most wooded. Analogy would lead us to put the fauna at, at least, double the present number; and much of the increase would consist of new species, since, in comparing it with that of the other Atlantic groups, it presents some singular features. Thus of the 1450 species comprised in the 'Coleoptera Atlanti-dum' one-fourth are European, one-fourth probably geographical races, and one-half indigenous. Thus in the combined groups only 350 European species occur, while here we have already 160; hence no great increase of this class can be expected. The proportions here take the form of three-fourths European, and about one-tenth or less, indigenous. This is no doubt due to this collection having |