( 73 ) V. On some New Zealand Coleoptera. By D. Sharp. [Read March 1st, 1882.] A SMALL parcel of Coleoptera, received a few weeks since by me from Mr. Helms, of Greymouth, New Zealand, has proved, on examination, to contain such a large proportion of new and interesting forms as to make me believe that it would be acceptable to entomologists that I should briefly define and record some of them. Hence the present paper. The idea formerly universally accepted, to the effect that the New Zealand fauna is poor in insects, is now, so far as regards the order Coleoptera, shown to have been completely erroneous. Some 1400 or 1500 species of this order are now recorded from the islands in question, and yet a considerable proportion of the species found by Mr. Helms in the neighbourhood of his resi-dence prove to be new. And there can, indeed, be little doubt but that the number of existing species in the islands will amount to three thousand, or even more, — not improbably nearer to four thousand. Under these circumstances, the publication in 1880* of a Manual of New Zealand Coleoptera by the Colonial Museum and Geological Survey Department of the Colony, must clearly be characterised as premature, and has indeed been proved so by the additions of some hundreds of species made since its appearance. The volume contains descriptions of 1141 s]3ecies, a con-siderable proportion of which are reprints of papers or works that have appeared elsewhere, many of them quite recently, while the remainder — to the number of fully 500 — have been drawn up by Capt. Thomas Broun, whose skill and enthusiasm as a collector are deserving of the highest praise and warmest encouragement, but whose * ' Manual of the New Zealand Coleoptera.' By Capt. Thomas Broun. Published by Command. Wellington, 1880. TRANS. ENT. SOC. 1882. — PART I. (APRIL.) L
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