THE ALPINE FAUNA. 323 



Provence in the south of France. The distribution 

 of Zonites certainly dees not seem to imply an 

 Alpine origin, because it is almost completely absent 

 from the Alps proper. But I do not think my views 

 differ materially from those of Dr. Kobelt, since the 

 Alps, in the wide sense, include the mountains of the 

 Balkan peninsula, where I should feel inclined to 

 locate the ancestral home of the genus. 



The small operculate genus Acme is a similar 

 case. Dr. Kobelt places the centre of distribution 

 on the southern slope of the Alps, but scarcely 

 any of the species inhabit the Alps proper. Some 

 occur in France, others in North Africa, Sicily, 

 Southern Italy, and the Caucasus. It is evidently 

 a very ancient genus. The species live in moss or 

 underground, and are not likely to be transported 

 across the sea by accidental or occasional means of 

 distribution. 



Still another genus, which resembles Acme in its 

 geographical distribution, is Daudebardia a small 

 slug-like mollusc with a tiny shell. It does not, 

 however, range nearly so far north or west as Acme> 

 for it occurs neither in the British Islands nor in 

 Spain or the Pyrenees. 



I shall not be able to refer to more than a few of 

 the most typical Alpine species of Lepidoptera, but 

 they may be taken as fair examples of the geo- 

 graphical distribution of the rest of the group. 



Even those visitors to Switzerland who do not 

 claim to be naturalists have heard of the remarkably 



