NYMPHALINAE: THE GENUS EUVANESSA. 391 



logically carried out, would compel us to restrict the old Linnean name of 

 Papilio to this butterfly and its congeners. This I have done since I first 

 pointed it out in 1S72 (Syst. Rev.) ; but no one has seen fit to accept a 

 logic 80 severe, although no attempt has been made to controvert the points 

 raised, so fjir as regards the history of the name since 1758, where its his- 

 tory properly begins. The virulent sentimental objections that have been 

 raised to its restriction to this group and its removal from one where com- 

 mon usage has placed it, and the fact that such removal would, by the rules 

 I have adhered to in the present work, carry with it also the family name, 

 induce me, in injustice to Schrank, and against my judgment of what would 

 really be best and finally permanent, to leave Papilio where it is, and has 

 been, best known. It becomes, therefore, necessary to introduce a new 

 term for the present group, which I have accordingly done. 



Geographical distribution. This genus consists of only two known 

 species, one of which, E. cyanomelas, is reported from Mexico alone, while 

 the other, the species described below, has a much more extensive rano-e, 

 including Mexico and embracing the larger part of the north temperate 

 zone. Its distribution in America appears to be greater than in Europe 

 as far as regards differences of temperature and climate ; and this fact, to- 

 gether with the occurrence of a distinct type of the genus, as here restricted, 

 in North America alone, have long led me to consider this continent as the 

 proper home of the widespread antiopa. Walsh long ago argued (Proc. 

 ent. 80c. Phil., iii : 219) that it must have been introduced into this coun- 

 try, if at all, from Europe and not from England, because our specimens 

 agreed with the continental and not the anglican tvpe, but his aro-ument 

 was based on the supposition (wholly gratuitous and utterly improbable) 

 that it was transported in the egg state on growing plants. The presence 

 of the Mexican species seems to me to put its introduction (if introduced 

 at all) back into geological time ; while the larger number of near allies in 

 the Old World than in the New (i. e., of species of Nymphalis in the sense 

 in which it is used in Kirby's catalogue — excluding the Polygoniae proper) 

 tends toward the opinion that its earlier ancestors were Asiatic. I may 

 here quote from a letter received from Dr. Behr of San Francisco, on re- 

 ceipt of my paper on the distribution of Vanessa cardui (Am. nat. , x : 392) , 

 presenting a curious bit of evidence for its probable American origin. 

 "There is another Vanessa," he writes, "which may perhaps be of 

 American origin. It is antiopa. I am led into this belief by the cir- 

 cumstance that old missals decorated by monks in mediaeval times with 

 life-like insects and flowers, show frequently V. io, but never V. antiopa, 

 whose striking beauty certninly would have inspired the mediaeval college 

 father with the same desire to ornament with its figure the missal under 

 his hands." 

 Characteristics and history. The butterflies of this o-enus are 



