9 [January, 



of flowering plants. These conditions would appear to indicate the 

 presence of at least a moderately extensive Lepidopterous fauna, which 

 is not borne out by the results of such researches as have been 

 made so far, and Iceland, in this respect, is probably one of the poorest 

 ]-egions of the whole earth. It must be remembei-ed, however, that no 

 equally accessible land of the same extent has been so inadequately 

 explored from an entomological point of view. So far as I am aware, 

 Iceland has never produced a single resident collector or observer of 

 insects, and such knowledge of the svibjeet as we j^ossess is due to a very 

 few of the numerous summer visitors from Europe — above all, to the late 

 Dr. Staudinger, whose classical paj^er on the results of his expedition in 

 ISoG ("Reise nach Island": Stett. Ent. Zeitung, 18 Jahrgang, 1857, 

 pp. 209-289) still remains the most important single work on the insect 

 fauna of this great island. 



The oldest record of Icelandic insects by IST. Mohr ("Forsog til in 

 Islands Naturhistorie " : Kjobenhavn, 178G) includes 12 species of 

 Lepidoptera ; and the same number of species appears in a list of insects 

 compiled by M. Paul Galmard in the Appendix to the official narrative 

 of the voyage of the French corvette " La Eecherche " to Iceland and 

 Greenland in 1835-6. This list is reproduced in Dr. C. W. PaijkuH's 

 well-known work "Ein Sommer in Island" (English translation, 1868, 

 pp. 355-6). Like the last, it mentions no butterflies, and is otherwise 

 of not much value. In the "Table of Distribution " of the very useful 

 little " Manual of European Butterflies " by the late W. F. Kirby, the 

 following species are ascribed to Iceland — Colias palaeno Jj., G. pliico- 

 mone Esp., and CJiionohas oeno Edv. (Boisduval) ; Colias liecla L. 

 (Linne), Ghionolas jiilta Hb., and Argynnis freyja Thnb. (De Vilhers 

 et Guenee). From the known distribution of these species, it is very 

 unlikely that any of them can occur in Iceland, and, as far as I am 

 aware, no specimens exist in any collection, with the possible exception 

 of the last-named butterfly, the case for whose occurrence in Iceland 

 will be considered later on. 



The expedition of Dr. Staudinger, who was accompanied by 

 C. Kalitsch, an excellent practical collector, occupied most of the 

 summer of 1856, from May 18th to the middle of September. His 

 researches were chiefly made in the relatively barren south-western 

 portion of the island, but fortunately another experienced entomologist, 

 Dr. Kriiper, spent most of June and all July of the same year in the 

 much more luxuriant region round the lake Myvatn in the north-east. 

 Some insects were also collected in the same year by Herr Finsterwalder 

 on the north coast, in the Siglufjordr region, which was, however, found 



