﻿212 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM 



VOL. 100 



central bristles, femora usually spotted, scutal scales largely narrow, 

 and the abdomen and pleura usually with silvery scales. The Solo- 

 mon species clearly belong to the nitidoventer-grovi^. 



DISTRIBUTION AND AFFINITIES OF THE SOLOMON SPECIES 



The genus THpteroides includes at present 72 species distributed 

 from India to Fiji and from Japan to Tasmania and New Zealand, as 

 shown in table 1. It appears that New Guinea is the center of distri- 

 bution of this genus, and this will probably remain true even when 

 Borneo and adjacent areas, where Nepenthes reaches its peak, are 

 better studied. The subgenus THpteroides is widely distributed with 

 the nitidoventer-groxx^ occurring throughout the range of the genus 

 except for outlying areas (New Zealand, the New Hebrides, New 

 Caledonia, and temperate Australia). The group aranoides^ on the 

 other hand, covers only the western end of the range. It is absent 

 north of the Philippines and east of Wallace's Line. The other three 

 subgenera are restricted to the Australasian area (table 2). 

 Maorigoeldia is endemic in New Zealand and is known from one species 

 only. Raclmoura is found only in the Papuan Region and does not 

 even extend into tropical Australia but is represented in the Solomon 

 Islands by the filipes-grouY>. The vanleeuweni-gnow^ does not occur 

 outside of New Guinea. Mimeteomyia has the widest known distri- 

 bution in Australasia, as it is represented from temperate Australia to 

 Fiji, being absent only in New Zealand. 



' Numbers in parentheses indicate endemic species. 



