•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, II., “ Pendulations Theorie,” p. 92. 
t I’agenstecher, A., “ Verbreitung d. Schmetterlinge,” p. 359. 
