Phylogeny of the Pierine. 329 
C. thauruma, etc., which are probably derived from the 
Neotropical genus Amynthia, coming nearest to A. 
clorinde. Inasmuch as all these are African insects, and 
the New World Callidryas, Pheebis, and Metwra are less 
closely allied to Amynthia, it seems necessary to suppose 
that the earliest forms of this group in the Neotropical 
Region have become extinct, the present Callidryas 
group surviving as their modified descendants; while an 
early dispersal of these ancestral forms took place across 
the Atlantic to Africa, of which invasion C. florella, etc., 
remain as comparatively unmodified relics. The Oriental 
and Australian Catopsilias are the ultimate developments 
of this invasion. 
The distribution of Belenots is remarkable, the bulk of 
the species belonging to the Ethiopian and Australian 
Regions. .The Oriental Region is poorly supplied, except 
for the abundant B. mesentina, which is found in all 
parts of the Indian peninsula, and even enters the 
Mediterranean district of the Paleearctic Region as far as 
Asia Minor. Notwithstanding the present poverty of 
the Oriental Region in species of Belenois, it seems 
probable that this area is really the birthplace of the 
genus, which, as we have seen, appears to be derived 
from that primitive part of the Pierine stem now repre- 
sented by Delias and Prioneris. B. mesentina and 
B. taprobana, of India and Ceylon, may probably be 
regarded as survivors of the original race of Belenois, 
whose descendants have spread south-eastwards to 
Australia, and south-westwards to Madagascar and the 
African continent. Pinacoptery« is in all probability a 
local modification of elenois within the Ethiopian 
Region, while Daptonwra, whose history is otherwise 
hard.to. account for, may perhaps have originated from a 
branch of the African Belenois which at some remote 
period found its way westwards across the Atlantic. 
In concluding this paper I wish to express my great 
indebtedness to several friends who have given me 
valuable help during its progress. It was by the kind- 
ness of the late Professor Westwood that I was enabled 
to begin the study of the Pierine group in the Hope 
Collection at Oxford, and the facilities for work afforded 
me by him have been continued and increased by his 
successors in the charge of the department, first by 
TRANS, ENT. SOC. LOND. 1894.—part 11. (JUNE.) Y 
