130 Mr. E. Meyrick on the 



suited to many situations of the region, and found else- 

 where flourishing in full competition with all European 

 families, should have been ever wholly expelled from it 

 in the struggle for existence. But it is both intelligible 

 and likely that the same family might be unable to gain 

 a footing from outside in the European region, stocked 

 as it is with the most highly improved forms and pro- 

 tected by natural barriers. As a matter of fact the 

 Cryptolechndce are found to be very plentiful in South 

 America, and less plentiful, but still well represented, in 

 South Africa and Australia. Probably they extend 

 upwards into India and the Malay Archipelago, and per- 

 haps also into North America, but they are absent from 

 New Zealand. Now, assuming (what appears to me 

 certain) that the family has never existed in Europe, the 

 only other possible supposition is that there must have 

 been at some period land-connection between the three 

 southern continents. In confirmation of their southern 

 origin, it is to be observed that the particular group, 

 from which the Cryptolechiidce appear to have been 

 developed, is still and must always have been the promi- 

 nent group in Australia. I am certainly of opinion that 

 this case, relating to the whole of an extensive family, 

 can be explained on no other hypothesis. It should be 

 borne in mind that Wallace's well-known conclusions on 

 this subject, drawn practically from the distribution of 

 mammals and birds only, must (as I am reminded by 

 Prof. Hutton) bear only on Tertiary and late Secondary 

 times, and be therefore wholly inadequate to explain the 

 distribution of so ancient a group as that of insects. 



Of the other families, I believe the GlyphipterygidcB and 

 Dasyceridm to be very possibly of southern origin, but 

 very early developed, and once co-extensive with the 

 parent family CEcophoridce ; and the Gelechiidce, Depres- 

 sariidcB, and Chimabacchidce to have been certainly de- 

 veloped in Europe, and thence spread over their present 

 range. 



When we consider the ancient origin, the small size, 

 the fragility and defencelessness, the very limited specific 

 range, and the scanty locomotive powers of the Micro- 

 Lepidoptera, as well as their inaptitude for dissemination 

 by extrinsic means, it appears to me that the study of 

 their geographical distribution will be of unsurpassed 

 value in determining the past history of the world. But 

 before attempting this it is absolutely necessary that 



