$96 HISTORY OF THE EUROPEAN FAUNA. 



islands of Malta, Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica. From 

 the general range of the family Discoglossidtv, as 

 given in Mr. Boulenger's excellent catalogue, it 

 appears that nowhere in the vast space between 

 China and New Zealand has any member of the 

 family been discovered. The peculiar genus of 

 Salamander CJiioglossa is quite confined to the 

 Spanish peninsula. 



The Butterflies Nemeobius htcina and Charaxes 

 jasius may also have had their home in that south- 

 western district. To this migration also seems to 

 belong the genus Gonepteryx, which has so peculiar a 

 range in the British Islands. The only British species, 

 known as the Brimstone Butterfly (Goneptcryxrhanmi\ 

 occurs in the south of England and in the south and 

 west of Ireland. It is met with over the greater part 

 of Europe, and its range extends into Asia Minor and 

 Northern India, and then it reappears again in dis- 

 tinct varieties in Japan and the Amur district. Three 

 other species of Gonepteryx are known from Tibet 

 and India, and one (G. cleopatrd] from Southern 

 Europe and Northern Africa. All the remaining 

 species inhabit the west, viz., Brazil, Mexico, and 

 Venezuela. That the genus has migrated from 

 America eastward to Europe appears to be more 

 probable than a migration in the opposite direction. 

 At any rate, that an exchange of species between 

 the south-western portion of the Holafctic Region 

 and the Neotropical area took place is indicated by 

 the fact, not only that a variety of G. cleopatra has 



