i i V. On some Coleoptera /"ro/TZ the Iltncaiian Islands. By D. Sharp. [Read March 5th, 1879.] This paper contains descriptions of thirty new species of beetles fonnd by the Rev. T. Blackburn in the Sandwich Islands. A like instalment, which I hope shortly to offer to the Society, will complete the descrij^tions of the discoveries made by ]\Ir. Blackburn up to the present time in the islands. The species described are most of them very minute insects, and this, unfortunately, will create a great difficulty in ascertaining at present their neai-est relatives, for it is an undoubted fact that our knowledge of the Micro-Coleoptera is still quite rudimen-tary, except in regard to European and North American forms. I have felt compelled to establish four new generic names, viz., Omicrus {Hydrophilidce), Monanus \Cucu-Jid(E), Antilissus [Co/i/diidce) and Propalticus, this latter being so peculiar a form that I am quite doubtful what its affinities will ultimately prove to be, although I have temporarily placed it with the Mycetopharjidm. Clytarlus microgaster is a most remarkable insect, by reason of the excessive reduction in size of its hind body or abdomen, which in the male sex is reduced to a small appendage, reminding one of Avhat exists in some of the parasitic Hymenoptera. I have not seen the female of this interesting creature, and expect the hind body must be at any rate somewhat larger than in the male. I almost think 1 might cite this fact as a support of the suggestion I made (Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. 1878, p. 15), that the paucity of individuals of most s})ecies of beetles in these islands is possibly due to a diminution in the reproductive powers of the species, owing to their long-continued isola-tion, and the consequent absence of that amount of bi'eeding between slightly-diffisreiit forms or races which is so favourable to fertility of organisms. The minute size of most of the species of these islands may perhaps also TRANS. ENT. SOC. 1879. — PART I. (aPR.)
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