THE SATYRINE GENUS MELANARGIA, MBIGEN. 125 



and Nat. Hist. Soc. S. London,' 1914-15), in connection with 

 the Cinxia group, comments upon the puzzle of its origin. 

 " The absence of high mountain or really arctic species of the 

 group," he writes, " and the fact that it reaches further south 

 both in Asia and Africa than any other group of the genus, 

 points distinctly to its more modern origin. . . ." Mutatis 

 mutandis the same conclusion presents itself in the case of the 

 genus Melanargia. Tutt (' British Butterflies,' p. 377) enume- 

 rates his subject-group as follows : 



Family Satyridae, 



Sub-family Erebiinae, 



Tribe Erebiidi, 



Genus Melanargia, 



and suggests that it is less an ancient race evolved from a 

 rigorous climate than a race successfully modified to withstand 

 that climate, bearing out my proposition, also, that Ghlatea in 

 particular, and Melanargia in general, has come north-westward 

 from Asia Minor, and not, vice versa, moved south and south- 

 westward via Palestine, Egypt, and the North African littoral. 

 Thus he figures Galatea at the very top of the butterfly stirps 

 and therefore farthest removed from the Hesperiidas, and 

 Heterocera, as the most specialised, on the strength of the 

 pupa showing no movable abdominal incision, and being rigid 

 and incapable of movement, as with Erehia. 



It is, of course, permissible to speculate that the westward 

 migration of M. g/datea, resulting in M. lucasi in Algeria 

 followed the line above indicated through Egypt and Cyrenaica 

 at a time when this region was less desiccated and barren than 

 within the range of historical record. M. titea and M. teneates, 

 obvious derivatives of Galatea or Larissa, reach southwards 

 from the Armenian grasslands through a part of Palestine ; yet 

 therefrom the trend is in a south-easterly, not in a south- 

 westerly direction, and the fact that no Melanargia exists in the 

 fertile Nile valley and delta strengthens the probability of an 

 original exodus north and north-west of the genus across 

 the Balkans where, according to Geike, there is no sign of 

 glaciation, to Central and Western Europe. 



For Lachesis, at all events, there is no known locality in 

 North Africa, and therefore no area of intermixture, due to 

 the Gibraltar barrier, and this being so, it is open to conclude 

 that Lachesis has developed from the Galatea of the North 

 Mediterranean (= Procida), and at a later period than that 

 when Europe and Africa were joined at this point ; otherwise 

 it is not easy to account for the failure of Lachesis on the North- 

 West African littoral. 



I am led to believe on botanical authority that certain species 

 of grasses occurring in, roughly speaking, the Larissa- Galatea 

 region of Armenia present a somewhat parallel peculiarity of 



