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XV. A Catalogue of the RJiopalocerous Lepidoptera collected 

 in the Shan States, ivith notes on the country and 

 climate. By Neville Manders, M.E.C.S., F.E.S., 

 Surgeon, Army Medical Staff. 



[Read June 4th, 1890.] 



Having spent two years on active service and intermittent 

 collecting in the unknown districts of the Cis Salween 

 Shan States, I have thought that a short account of the 

 country, together with a catalogue of the Lepidoptera 

 (Ehopalocera) collected during this time, would prove 

 not without interest to Fellows of the Society. 



I think the catalogue will not be without interest, for, 

 though few new species are therein described, yet I hold 

 that one of the most interesting entomological questions 

 of the day is the distribution of insects ; and, as the 

 vast tract of country lying between Assam and Sikkim, 

 on the one hand, and Upper Tenasserim, Lower Burma, 

 and the Malay Peninsula on the other, is practically 

 unknown to the naturalist, any contribution towards 

 our knowledge of the insects inhabiting that region will 

 be of use. 



It may reasonably be inferred that insects occurring 

 both in Assam and the Malay Peninsula would occur 

 also in the intervening region, yet the proof that they 

 do so has so far been wanting. 



If I were asked to deline Upper Burma, I would say 

 that it is the plain (mostly alluvial) on either bank of 

 the Irrawaddy, bounded on the west and north-west by 

 the Aracan, Yomas, Lushai, and Chittagoug hill tracts, 

 on the north-east by Yunan and the Northern Shan 

 States, on the east by the Shan States, and south-east 

 by Karenni. It will be seen that I limit Upper Burma 

 to a comparatively small tract of country ; yet I think 

 the definition a natural one. It is, in fact, an alluvial 

 k plain surrounded by mountainous country, the former 

 being as hot and almost as dry as the Punjab. The 



TRANS. ENT. SOC. LOND. 1890. — PART III. (^SEPT.) 2 M 



