RHOPALOCEIH .V.I ^..111 .V I. 



67 



Group Molll'IIIX.l. 



Palpi slender, the anterior margins not dilated. 



Lai'ViB (as ut present ileserihed) with a more or loss developed liitid 



tail 



Fig. 17. — Head. sliowin;4 l)iJ|)i of 







Fiii. Is. — Larva of AmntJiiisiit pluilipjiits (from Horsf. Cat. I.pp. llus. E. I. (,'.) 

 Flo. 1!). — ,, Diacnphnra celiiuU' „ „ 



This division corresponds with the subfamily Morpltiiitr of many authorities (ante p. 66), and 

 includes not only some of the largest Nymphalinous butterliies, hut also (especially in the 

 American genus Morplio) examples of the most beautiful species to l)e found in the whole 

 Khopalocera. The genus Morpho is, in fact, the type of this division, and also its sole repre- 

 sentative in the American tropics, whilst nine other genera are distributed throughout the tropical 

 regions of the East. The genus Morpho is remarkable for the resplendent l)lue coloration or 

 tints of the wings of its species, and possesses as its nearest ally in the East the beautiful 

 genus Thaumautis. It was an eloquent remark of Humboldt, when comparing the plants of 

 Equinoctial America with those of Europe, that " when Nature does not present the same species, 

 she loves to repeat the same genera ; " * and some of the older entomologists f described Oriental 

 species as belonging to the genus Morplio which have subsequently, and more correctly, been 

 placed in that of Thaumantis. 



The presence of these two closely allied genera Morpho and TJiainnnntis in such widely 

 separated areas as the Neotropical I and Indo-Malayan regions is possil)le of explanation by a 

 slight reference to other corresponding biological facts. Thus, in Mammalia, the genus Tapirus has 

 a somewhat similar distribution, and, although restricted in the number of species, is also only 

 found in these regions. But it is known that in Tertiary times, both Miocene and Pliocene, the 

 Tapir inhabited Europe, and its fossil teeth are, even in this country, found in the Norfolk and 

 Suffolk crag deposits, whilst in the Pleistocene period in North America it extended as far 

 north as the Valley of the Mississippi. The geological argument is, however, too extensive for 

 discussion here, but Mr. Wallace has attentively studied it, and can be quoted: — "North 

 America was evidently in very early times so far connected with Europe and Asia as to 

 interchange with those continents the higher types of animal life as they were successively 



■■• ' Person. Narrative,' Bolin's edit., vol. i. p. 424. f Gotlait and Zinkeu-Sommer. 



I The Neotropical region of Dr. Sclater includes all South America, tlie Antilles, and tropical portion of North .America. 

 The tropical portions of this region are here alone referred to. 



