214 ORIGIN OF LIFE IN AMERICA 



variously modified forms on the islands of Madeira, Sicily, 

 Sardinia and Teneriffe, on the Azores, the Cape Verde islands, 

 St. Helena, Tristan d'Acunha and Bermuda. It has never 

 been reported from any of the West Indian islands, Central 

 America or the southern States of North America. In western 

 North America it has a wide range, being known as Amalia 

 hewstoni, from British Columbia to Mexico. On the east 

 coast it occurs only along the coast of Massachusetts and New 

 York, exactly where so many other members of an ancient 

 fauna reside. In Asia, except Asia Minor, no Amalia has 

 hitherto been discovered. In Africa it is only met with along 

 the north coast and in Cape Colony (A. ponsonbyi) . From 

 south Australia a similar form has been described as Amalia 

 pectinata, while others occur in New Zealand and the Sand- 

 wich islands. Most zoologists will insist that such an enor- 

 mously wide and discontinuous range of a species, though 

 exhibiting distinctive characters in its various habitats, can 

 only be due to artificial introduction by man. My own opinion 

 is that it has reached all the localities referred to by the 

 natural means of progression on land during a long series of 

 geological periods, and Professor Simroth,* the best living 

 authority on slugs, shares the same view. As far as its occur- 

 rence in western North America is concerned, Professor Sim- 

 roth's Atlantis, a land bridge connecting Portugal with the 

 .West Indies and the lands beyond it across the Atlantic, 

 would suit our purpose. The slug's absence from the Antilles 

 might be due to the fact that it became extinct there during 

 the extensive submergence which the West Indian area has 

 undergone in Tertiary .times. 



The eminent authority on butterflies and moths, Dr. Pagen- 

 stecher,f tells us that California possesses an independent 

 character among the North American fauna, in being more 

 nearly related to Europe than to the eastern States. With 

 the exception of Ctenucha and Agarista all the genera are 

 European, while Pyrameis atalanta, P. cardui, Vanessa 

 antiopa, Arctia caja, Phragmatobia fuliginosa, Scoliopteryx 

 libatrix, Brachionycha nubeculosa, Amphipyra pyramidea and 

 Agrotis exclamationis are common to California and Europe. 



* Simroth, H., " Pendulations Theorie," p. 92. 



t Pagenstecher, A., " Verbreitung d. Schmetterlinge," p. 359. 



