CXXXV 
from Europe. This ‘being so, one wonders why so many 
common European species which extend to South Spain, 
South Portugal or Sicily are missing in North Africa, the 
absence of certain Palaearctic types being a very striking 
feature of the Mauretanian fauna. As our various visits to 
Algeria were chiefly undertaken with the object of studying 
and collecting birds and Lepidoptera, and to a lesser extent 
mammals, though other classes were not entirely neglected, 
I will restrict my remarks almost entirely to the groups of 
animals which interested us most. 
As you know, the most important contributions to our 
knowledge of the Lepidopterous fauna of Mauretania is due to 
an English Entomologist of great skill, H. Powell, whose 
results in observation, breeding and collecting have been so 
ably published by our Honorary Fellow, Mons. Charles Ober- 
thiir. I myself have received a large amount of material in 
fine order from Mons. V. Faroult, who has collected in many 
places of Algeria, during later years exclusively for me. And 
much has been done to explore the Lepidoptera by Mons. A. 
Nelva at Batna, the late Capt. Holl and my friend Dr. H. C. 
Nissen at Alger, besides numerous European Entomologists 
who have visited the country. The higher portions of the 
Atlas of Morocco may have some surprises for us, but I believe 
that the Algerian mountains are fairly well explored, though 
very much remains to be done in detail. 
Those of you who have collected Lepidoptera in Algeria 
will probably have been struck like myself by the absence of 
many familiar species of European butterflies and moths. 
There are no Limenitis, Neptis and Apatura in North Africa; 
Leucophasia sinapis and Anthocharis cardamines, Thecla ilicis 
and Laeosopis roboris, Vanessa io and V. urticae, Syntomis 
phegea, Lasiocampa quercus, Gastropacha quercifolia, Den- 
drolimus pint and Hippocrita jacobacae, to mention only some 
of the larger and familiar species, do not occur in Mauretania, 
though many of them are common in South Spain. The 
food-plants are there, and the climate is so varied in the plains 
and mountains of North Africa that these factors do not offer 
a plausible explanation of the lacunae in the Mauretanian 
fauna; nor would the straits of Gibraltar be a barrier 
