220 [March, 



islands. The insect has even reached the remote little island of Oparo 

 or Eap-a, far away to the southward ; but I could not meet with it at 

 Pitcairn Island, nor did any of the inhabitants, to whom I show^ed 

 specimens, recognise it as existing there. 



Mr. Cf. F. Mathe\i-, E.N. (to whom I am greatly indebted for 

 some most interesting notes on the butterfly as observed by him 

 during his recent cruise in H.M.S. "Espiegle," as well as a full list of 

 localities, given further on), informs me that Anosia Plexippus is found 

 throughout the Samoan, Friendly, and Fiji Islands, and is especially 

 abundant in the latter group, which he regards as perhaps its head- 

 quarters (at the present time) in the Western Pacific. It appears 

 also to have reached the North Island of New Zealand, as well as 

 Norfolk Island. In New Caledonia, where it has been long established, 

 it became very abundant some years ago, but is now comparatively 

 scarce, owing, as suggested by Mr. E. L. Layard to Mr. Mathew, to 

 the destruction of nearly al] the food-plant by the larvsB. We first 

 hear of its occurrence in Australia in 1870, when Mr. Miskin (Ent. 

 Mo. Mag., vol. viii, p. 17) records its appearance in Queensland : it now 

 seems to have spread throughout all the warmer parts of this great 

 island, and even to Hobart Town (Tasmania) in lat. 42° S. In the 

 New Hebrides, Solomon Islands, New Guinea, and other islands in 

 that part of the Pacific, it appears to be now firmly established and 

 not rare ] but it was not seen by Mr. Mathew^ at the Gilbert, Ellice, 

 and Marshall Islands, nor at the Carolines, though he noticed the 

 Asclepias at the latter group, and Mr. Scudder (Psyche, vol. i, p. 81) 

 records the occurrence of young larvae at Ponape Island (Carolines) on 

 some "milk-weeds" {Asclepias) which had been accidentally introduced. 

 Dr. Semper has recorded the butterfly from Celebes, and Mr. W. F. 

 Kirby informs me that it has been found in Java. 



Starting from the eastern coast of America, we find Anosia PlexippuB 

 throughout the West Indies in company w^ith some curious local forms 

 of the genus ; and it has long been established in the Bermudas, 650 

 miles from the coast of the United States. Two examples, now in the 

 collection of Messrs. Salvin and God man, were taken in 1864 in the 

 islands of Fayal and Flores respectively, but I cannot ascertain that 

 any have since been found in the Azores, nor did I see the insect when 

 there in October, 1880. It does not seem to have reached Madeira, 

 though Asclepias cwassavica has found its way to that island. 



The first record of the occurrence of Anosia Flexippus in Britain 

 is in 1876 (Ent. Mo. Mag., vol. xiii, p. 107), a specimen having been 

 taken by Mr. J. T. D. Llewelyn at Neath in South Wales, on Septem- 



