CIs) 
‘genus is cosmopolitan; Heliostibes, three species, only 
‘‘ known otherwise from South America. The Micropteryyide, 
‘‘ eight species, are only known otherwise from Europe, North 
“and South America. Many large families, such as the 
‘* Phycitida, are wholly, or almost wholly, absent. 
(4) The distinctness of the Australian fauna is to some 
“extent masked by the great influx of Malayan species 
‘into the northern portions, a comparatively recent phe- 
** nomenon. 
(5) So far as I am. acquainted with the fauna of the 
‘‘ South Pacific islands, it seems very fragmentary and miscel- 
‘«¢ Janeous, more Malayan than anything else, but it is very 
** inadequately known as yet.” 
This evidence is very striking, and if confirmed by other 
groups of insects would justify the retention of Australia as one 
of the primary regions ; but it must not be forgotten that our 
knowledge of these obscure groups in most parts of the world, 
and especially in the tropics, is, one may say, infinitesimal, 
and though I am quite as ready to attach weight to evidence 
drawn from obscure and little-known insects, as from the 
more striking and better-known groups, yet the classification 
on which the whole theory rests must be sound and well 
determined, and I fail to see how any system of classification 
can be more than provisional which is not based on a much 
greater amount of material than I think Mr. Meyrick at 
present possesses. 
Lord Walsingham, however, whose special knowledge of 
the Tincina of the world gives his opinion great weight, and 
to whom I submitted Mr. Meyrick’s remarks, agrees with him, 
Provisionally accepting, therefore, Australia as one of the 
primary divisions, can it be subdivided ? 
New Zealand must, according to Meyrick, stand apart, 
though if it is not a province of the Australian region it can 
hardly be included in any other. 
Its very few species of butterflies comprise one or two wide- 
ranging forms which are probably immigrants. The principal 
others are 
Two endemic species of Vanessa. 
