most of the Colydiidae, and such forms as Brounia, Dendrobtax, 

 Camiaius and others among the Coleoptera, Ouiscigasier among 

 the Ephemeridae, and the very primitive and archaic Mneine- 

 archa and Sabatinca in the Micro-Lepidoptera, to mention only 

 a few forms. Probably all these are relics of the fauna of a 

 vanished continental land in the South Temperate Zone, of 

 which the site is in part indicated by the relatively shallow- 

 soundings of the New Zealand Plateau. This may at some 

 period of its existence have been connected with what is now 

 South America, and by this " land-bridge" the Neotropical 

 element, so plainly indicated in the Fauna and Flora of New 

 Zealand, may have been transmitted. As pointed out by 

 Mr. Meyrick, this affinity between the two faunae is very 

 evident in the principal divisions of the Lepidoptera, and 

 especially so in the Geometrinae; and I well remember how 

 much I was impressed, when in New Zealand, with the strong 

 general resemblance of many of the Geometrid moths to those 

 I had made acquaintance with in Chile some twenty years 

 previously. The nearest allies of the remarkable butterfly 

 Argyrophenga antipodum are to be found among the Chilian 

 Satyridae; and the very distinct Tipulid genus Macromastix 

 is also represented in Chile as well as in Amboyna. This last, 

 however, is evidently a form of very great antiquity and wide 

 distribution in bygone ages, as Prof. Cockerell informs me 

 that a species of this genus has been recently detected in a 

 stratum of Oligocene age in the Isle of Wight. 



In the three endemic species of Chrysophanus, and especially 

 in Percnodaimon plufo, which is practically an Erehia, we find 

 an unexpected and not easily explicable affinity with the 

 Palaearctic fauna ; and a slight relationship with that of the 

 Ethiopian region is indicated in the Histerid genus Sternaulax, 

 one of the two species of which is found in New Zealand, and 

 the other in Madagascar. A much larger element appears to 

 have been derived originally from what are now the Austro- 

 Malayan and Melanesian regions by way of extensions north- 

 ward of the former " Greater New Zealand " as indicated by 

 shallower soundings in this direction. These " land-bridges," 

 however, have long been severed by the subsidence of the 

 greater part of this ancient land, which occurred before many 



