( '5 ) II. On the Cossonidge of Japan. By T. Vernon Wollaston, M.A., F.L.S. [Read 6th January, 1873.] Having been requested by Mr. G. Lewis to draw up a paper on the various members of the CossonidcB which he obtained during his late residence in Japan, and which form an important (though perhaps not very considerable) item of his Coleopterous gleanings, I have done so, — though not without some slight degree of regret at the large num-ber of new genera which I have found it necessary to esta-blish. I say " regret," because where species are compa-ratively small in size, and present no modifications of structure which are at once striking and conspicuous, and where moreover external characters can alone be employed for the purposes of classification, one would far rather admit them into groups which are already recognized than propose additional ones for their reception. Yet, after a very carefid examination of Mr. Lewis's material, I feel convinced that the ordinary European types do not prevail in that particular portion of the Japanese empire to which his researches have been confined, — their places being manifestly taken by kindred, and to some extent repre-sentative, forms, which have geographically too much importance not to be acknowledged as distinct. What the case may be in the northern and central parts of the archipelago I have no means of ascertaining, — for, unless I am much mistaken, Mr. Lewis's explorations were pro-secuted chiefly in the island of Kushiu and the southern division of Nipon ; but it is not improbable that the large island of Yesso, and the still larger and more northern one of Saghalien (which nevertheless is not, I believe, regarded as an integral portion of the Japanese empire), wovdd have, to a .considerable extent, faunas of their own. Be this however as it may, I woidd desire to state that it is to the south of Japan that the present memoir must be considered as more properly to pertain. Glancing at the 18 species described below (and which are embodied in 15 genera), there are a fcAV points which strike one as requiring comment, — amongst which stands TRANS. ENT. SOC. 1873. — PART I. (MAR.)
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