Of Carabidæ Mr. Bates enumerates 244 species belonging to 84 genera, and by comparing these with the Coleoptera of a tract of about equal extent in western Europe, he concludes that there is little similarity, and that the cases of affinity to the forms of eastern tropical Asia preponderate. By comparing his genera with the distributions as given in _Gemminger and Harold's Catalogue_, a somewhat different result is arrived at. Leaving out the generic types altogether peculiar to Japan, and also those genera of such world-wide distribution that they afford no clear indications for our purpose, it appears that no less than twenty-two genera, containing seventy-four of the Japanese species, are either exclusively Palæarctic, Palæarctic and Nearctic, or highly characteristic of the Palæarctic region; then come thirteen genera containing eighty-seven of the species which have a very wide distribution, but are also Palæarctic: we next have seventeen genera containing twenty-four of the Japanese species which are decidedly Oriental and tropical. Here then the fair comparison is between the twenty-two genera and seventy-four species whose affinities are clearly Palæarctic or at least north temperate, and seventeen genera with twenty-four species which are Asiatic and tropical; and this seems to prove that, although South {229}Japan (like North China) has a considerable infusion of tropical forms, there is a preponderating substratum of Palæarctic forms, which clearly indicate the true position of the islands in zoological geography. There are also a few cases of what may be called eccentric distribution; which show that Japan, like many other island-groups, has served as a kind of refuge in which dying-out forms continue to maintain themselves. These, which are worthy of notice, are as follows: _Orthotrichus_ (1 sp.) has the only other species in Egypt; _Trechichus_ (1 sp.) has two other species, of which one inhabits Madeira, the other the Southern United States; _Perileptus_ (1 sp.) has two other species, of which one inhabits Bourbon, the other West Europe; and lastly, _Crepidogaster_ (1 sp.) has the other known species in South Africa. These cases diminish the value of the indications afforded by some of the Japanese forms, whose only allies are single species in various remote parts of the Oriental region. The Staphylinidæ have been described by Dr. Sharp, and his list exhibits a great preponderance of north temperate, or cosmopolitan forms, with a few which are decidedly tropical. The Pselaphidæ and Scydmenidæ, also described by Dr. Sharp, exhibit, according to that gentleman, "even a greater resemblance to those of North America than to those of Europe," but he says nothing of any tropical affinities. The water-beetles are all either Palæarctic or of wide distribution. The Lucanidæ (_Gemm. and Har. Cat._, 1868) exhibit an intermingling of Palæarctic and Oriental genera.