150 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



or Chilian ; 3. Tropical North American, or Mexican ; 

 4. Antillean. The Chilian Lepidopterous fauna is very 

 peculiar, so closely resembling that of California, and even 

 of Europe, that Chili and California might almost be regarded 

 as outlying portions of the Palaearctic region. Whether the 

 Pampas of South America are properly classed with Chili, 

 I much doubt ; but we require more extended observations 

 to confirm or modify Wallace's subregions. Many insects 

 are common throughout Tropical America, and are always 

 easily to be obtained; others are more local, and are not 

 always to be procured. Insects from Chili, Buenos Ayres, 

 and even the West Indies are frequently more diflficult to 

 obtain than those of other parts, probably because their more 

 limited faunse offer less attractions to naturalists. Only five 

 of the West Indian Islands — Cuba, Haiti, Porto Rico, Jamaica, 

 and Trinidad — have been at all properly worked ; and insects 

 i'rom the two former are very scarce in collections. The 

 fauna of Trinidad scarcely differs from that of the opposite 

 coast of South America. There are no systematic works on 

 the Lepldoptera of this region, apart from detached papers, 

 if we except the Lepidopterous portion of large books on 

 Cuba and Chili ; but a great number are figured in the large 

 illustrated works devoted to Lepldoptera generally, such as 

 Cramer's ' Papillons Exotiques,' Hewitson's ' Exotic Butter- 

 flies,' Hiibner's ' Sammlung Exotischer Schmetterlinge ' and 

 'Zutrage'; Henich-Schaffer's 'Aussereuropaische Schmetter- 

 linge ;' Felder's ' fleise der Fregatte Novara,' &c. 



VI. Nearctic Region, ok North America. — This region 

 is much poorer in Lepldoptera than the last, and is so closely 

 related to the Palaearctic region that but for conclusions drawn 

 from other natural groups it could scarcely be separated 

 froui it. Wallace divides it into four subregions, as follows : — 

 1. Western, or Californian Subregion ; 2. Central, or Rocky 

 Mountain Subregion; 3. Eastern, or Alleghany Subregion; 

 4. Subarctic, or Canadian. All these districts are now being 

 well worked, either by resident Lepidopterists or by scientific 

 surveys. Their productions are usually not difficult to obtain ; 

 those from the south-western and southern stales being gene- 

 rally the most prized and the rarest. The principal works on 

 this region are Abbot and Smith's ' Lepldoptera of Georgia,' 

 Boisduval and Leconte's ' Lepidopteres de I'Amerique Sep- 



