{ xlii ) 



Species common to and characteristic of the 

 Palsearctic region . . . . .41 



Peculiar to the Eastern part of this region, 

 but mostly belonging to genera of Pahearctic 

 affinity ....... 62 



Common to Indian region, or cosmopolitan in 

 Old World 44 



147 



"Last summer I made a short trip to this wonderfully in- 

 teresting country, ami though my objects were principally 

 the study of trees and forests, I was able to collect in some 

 parts of Japan little known to tho ordinary tourist, a number 

 of butterflies of great interest. Though I had carefully 

 studied the best Natural History books on the country I had 

 not in the least realised what were the climatic conditions 

 which prevail in summer, which have had a much greater 

 influence upon the character both of the vegetation and the 

 insects than I could have believed without seeing it. On 

 many occasions I was struck by the remarkable similarity of 

 the forest and the forest insects, even as far north as central 

 Hokkaido (usually known in England as Yezo) to tho middle 

 region of the Sikkim Himalayas at about 8-10,000 feet; and 

 even in the low country in the months of July and August 

 there is more to remind one of India than of Europe. The col- 

 lections which I made, though very scanty in point of numbers, 

 fairly represent the character of the Uutterlly fauna, which, 

 as you will see, contains a great number of Himalayan 

 genera and very lew species really characteristic of Northern 

 Europe and Asia. No doubt in the spring this would not 

 have been the case ; for though Pryer has stated in ' Rhopala- 

 cera Nihonica' (p. 2) that the Fauna is decidedly Palsearctic, 

 and my own analysis indicates a greater affinity to the 

 Palsearctic region than to the Indian, yet the species which 

 were most numerous in the forests almost all belong to 

 Indian genera ; characteristic Palsearctic genera and species 

 with the exception of Argynnis and l'icris wex - e almost 

 always few in number, and the most generally distributed 

 and common species of Europe and Northern Asia were 



