( cxxiv ) 



The larger proi>orti<iii nf tlie genera and species occnrring in the Falaearctic 

 Region are of Oriental extraction. Those of the Atlantic Subregion have come 

 over Afghanistan and Persia, those of the Pacific Snbregion over China. Ten 

 of the genera do not occur in the Oriental and Aethiopiau Regions, to which 

 number must be added Uaemonluujhi, which is not of Tropical Old World origin, 

 and OolhiiKt, which extends only into North India. Of tlie ten genera characteristic 

 of the Palaearctic Region, two are of American descent {Ilijloietis and Iluemor- 

 rliagia). When discussing the Nearctic Sphingulae, we drew attention to the fact 

 that the trojiical lli/loicus are more generalised than the Nearctic ones. A similar 

 phenomenon obtains in other genera. Tlie European Marumba quercus is more 

 specialised tliau the Oriental species of the genus and than sperchius. The 

 S}"rian Akbesiu is more specialised than the Aethiopian Batocnema, its nearest 

 all}-. The youngest member of Cullamhuhjx is the Palaearctic tutarinovi, the 

 Oriental rubricosa being the oldest. The most aberrant species of Sphinx is 

 the Nearctic jamaicensis {=geminatus), and the genus Sphinx has given rise in 

 North America to the specialised genns Calasi/mbolus. Of the various subspecies 

 of Sphinx ce)-isi/i, the Mexican one is the most generalised. The American 

 Pachijsphinx, Monarda, and Cressonia are yonnger members of that same 

 branch than is the Palaearctic Amorpha, and this is much more specialised 

 than tlie Oriental CuUamhulyx. The Syrian genus Berutana and the Nearctic 

 genera Ampcloeca and Darapsa are derivations from the Oriental genus Ampelo- 

 phaga. The southern Palaearctic sjiecies of llaeniorrhagia (croatica, dentata, 

 rubra, ducalis) have kept the complete or nearly complete covering of scales 

 to the wings, which the mimetic species have lost ; the Atlantic Nearctic 

 Ilaemorrhagia gracilis and thi/sbe are also more generalised than dijfinis and 

 brucei ; and Proserpini/s gaurae and jiiunita more than the Pacitic species of 

 the genus and its derivative Euproserpinus. The most specialised species 

 of the cosmoi)olitan genus Celerio are Palaearctic, and the two genera which 

 have branched off from Celerio are South African and Palaearctic. Maero- 

 glossum stellatarmn is in strncLnre and colour one of the most specialised 

 species of this large Afro-Oriental genus. Orecta, inhabiting temperate South 

 America, but extending beyond the Tropic of Capricorn, is a derivation from 

 the essentially tropical genus Ampli/pterus. These cases show that the extra- 

 tropical Sjihingidae are derivations from a tropical fauna, and that specialisation is 

 generally highest in the districts farthest from the original country. 



There are soiue apparent exceptions which, on closer inspection, only prove 

 the rule. Dolba of North America is more generalised than Dolbogene from 

 Mexico ; Dolbina inexacta from North India more specialised than D. tancrei 

 from Amurland and Japan ; Thamnoecha from North India more than the 

 Palaearctic Ilyloicus, and Dolbinopsis from North West India more than the 

 essentially Palaearctic genus Dolbina. In all these cases the southern Sphinx 

 is a derivation from the northern, these insects being acquisitions from the 

 Temperate Zone, existing only in the borderlands of the Trojiics. 



The Oriental Region is not larger in extent than the Neotropical and 



