Whilst touching on this immediate question of variability _as dependent to a great extent_, in numerous cases, _on proximity to the sea_, we may just notice the marked tendency which even the insects _peculiar to_ saline spots would seem in a large measure to possess, of converging, more or less obviously, to a lurid-testaceous, or pale brassy hue, in their colouring. True it is that we cannot (as above suggested) deduce any evidence of direct physical modifications from amongst species which are _strictly maritime_,--seeing that we have no means of judging in such instances whether similar phaenomena would or would not be produced in central districts also: nevertheless we may perhaps detect in this general law some slight indication of the effects which an atmosphere and soil constantly impregnated with salt would be likely to bring about in the external aspect of those members of the insect tribes whose range is sufficiently extensive to expose them to its operation. The bare mention of such names as _Nebria complanata_ and _livida_, _Calathus mollis_, _Pogonus luridipennis_, _Trechus lapidosus_, _Aepus marinus_ and _Robinii_, _Cillenum laterale_, _Bembidium scutellare_, _ephippium_ and _pallidipenne_, _Ochthebius marinus_, _Psylliodes marcida_, _Phaleria cadaverina_, _Helops testaceus_, and _Anthicus instabilis_, so eminently characteristic as they are of briny situations, will at once appeal to our native entomologists; whilst the acknowledgement of the same principle is no less conspicuous in a host of other species which are not included in the British fauna. Hence, when we see the tendencies of coloration (not to mention other particulars, often readily apparent) essentially the same, both in insects which are peculiar to, and in those which have overspread (from without) certain regions or localities, it is impossible not to associate some inherent controlling power with the regions themselves; and we are driven to the conclusion, that _either_ well-defined _races_ have been gradually shaped out, by means of the physical influences to which they have been exposed, or else that the _species themselves_ (as witnessed by the intermediate geographical links, which, although sometimes rare, are in all instances to be found) do assuredly merge into each other.