110 Geographical Distribution of Insects. 



these countries, besides, are in continuity with each other, 

 except New Holland, which is, however, so near the Indian 

 Archipelago, that it may receive a species from thence. But 

 it becomes more difficult to explain its presence in America, 

 where it likewise exists, especially in the United States. M. 

 Lacordaire has likewise taken it in Cayenne and Brazil. How- 

 ever, we may still account for the fact by supposing that it 

 has passed by the north from one continent to the other, or 

 that the eggs have been transported along with the plants 

 on which they were deposited. Numerous instances of such 

 transportations occur among the Lepidoptera. Among these, 

 that of Nymphalis BoUna may be cited, a species proper to 

 Africa and equatorial India, but which is likewise found in 

 Cayenne, whither it has, no doubt, been conveyed along with 

 some of the numerous Asiatic and African vegetables accli- 

 matised in that country. 



We may admit the same cause in regard to certain creo- 

 phagous species, which, in the larva and perfect state, live on 

 dried animal substances, such as skins, and thus explain the 

 existence of Corynetes rufipcs in Europe, California, Buenos 

 Ayres, and New Holland ; that of Dermestes vidpinus in Eu- 

 rope and the greater pai't of America. But there are cases 

 in which an explanation of this natiu-e will not avail. 



Thus, the Prestoni/chus complanatus., a species of southern 

 Em'ope and the coast of Barbary, is found on the mountains 

 in the neighbourhood of Valparaiso in Chili, and that is the 

 only spot in America known to produce it. The most mi- 

 nute comparison fails to discover any difference between in- 

 dividuals taken in this locality and those of Europe, so that 

 their specific identity cannot be questioned. But how can we 

 explain the presence, in places so remote from each other, of 

 a carabideous insect which is by no means common, which 

 lives, as a larva, in the bosom of the earth, which never 

 comes in contact with man, and which the latter consequently 

 could not transport from one place to another ; in this case 

 it appears necessary to admit that there have been two primi- 

 tive stocks, each of which have propagated themselves in their 

 separate localities. 



If a multiplied origin is rendered thus probable in regard 



