The Madeiras would seem to inherit, as it were, a more than usual control over the alary system of their insect population; for, out of about 550 species of Coleoptera which I have hitherto met with in that group, nearly 200 are either altogether apterous, or else have their organs of flight so imperfectly developed, that they may be practically regarded as such; so that, if our preceding conclusions (from the compensation-hypothesis) be correct, we should _a priori_ anticipate an increase of bulk in those islands, rather than a decrease of it. Unfortunately the greater number of these 200 representatives are now, through the submergence of the once surrounding continent, _endemic_, so that we have no means of judging whether the obsoleteness of their wings is to be referred to the long action of Madeiran influences[37], or whether they were thus created severally in the beginning; and, for the same reason (that is to say, having no others of their kind to compare them with), we cannot pronounce, even if we might assume this partial organic decay to be the consequence of their isolation on these rocks, whether their general stature has been subsequently augmented or not. Still, there are some few, out of the 200 just alluded to, which are of common European distribution; and, as these would appear to have obeyed the principles to which we have been calling attention, it is not unreasonable to suppose, that many of the others (could we but behold them as they formerly were,--emigrants over a vast continuous land) would be found to have done so also.