NA TURE 



2 5 



THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1902. 



THE BUTTERFLIES OF THE BORDERLAND 

 BETWEEN NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA. 



Biologia Centrali-Americana. hisecta — Lepidoptera — 

 Rhopalocera. Vols. i. and ii., 1879-1901. Pp. xlvi + 

 487 + 782. By Frederick Ducane Godman, F.R.S., 

 and the late Osbert Salvin, F.R.S. 



WE often hear, and are unfortunately compelled to 

 admit, that the claims of learning are far too 

 much neglected in our country, and that the wealth which 

 is accumulated so much faster than in past times is but 

 rarely under the control of men inspired as were the 

 " pious founders and benefactors " of old. With humilia- 

 tion and some perplexity we are forced to recognise that 

 in younger lands the ancient spirit is as strong as it has 

 ever been in history. Modern conditions have nothing 

 to do with the indifference to learning exhibited by the 

 average wealthy Englishman ; for wealth is brought 

 together under the newest of new conditions in the 

 countries where it is lavishly spent in establishing and 

 maintaining the centres of learning. And this is not 

 only true of the most recent of Colonial and American 

 universities. The older American universities date far 

 back into colonial times. The life of Harvard as a 

 university of an independent Power is even now shorter 

 than its life in a British Colony ; and yet Harvard, Yale 

 and the other older American universities yearly receive 

 benefactions for which Oxford and Cambridge look 

 in vain. The needs of both Oxford and Cambridge are 

 widely known in the country, as well as the serious lack 

 in efficiency which both of them suffer for want of an 

 assistance which on the other side of the Atlantic would 

 be freely given. The difference in spirit seems to lie in 

 a glorious " fashion " formerly dominant and powerful, 

 but at present weak and enfeebled, in this country while 

 it reigns supreme elsewhere. Such an interpretation is 

 hopeful ; for fashions may, and often do, revive, and even 

 surpass, their former influence. All honour to those who 

 in these latter days have helped on the good work in our 

 land. Among these noble efforts on behalf of learning 

 a prominent place will always be assigned to the munifi- 

 cence which has placed the investigation of the biology 

 of Central America to the credit of British science. 



The great work of which an important section forms 

 the subject of the present article is now drawing to its 

 close. It is, therefore, not inappropriate to say some- 

 thing of the biogeographical area of which the plants and 

 animals are described in this vast monograph, or rather 

 series of monographs, and to attempt to ascertain the 

 reasons which induced F. D. Godman and the late 

 Osbert Salvin to make the choice of their life-work. 



However they may be divided and named, the life- 

 bearing land-masses of the world are essentially 

 arranged as an incomplete ring girdling the Arctic 

 Ocean and sending three great extensions towards 

 the south. P. L. Sclater's original classification of the 

 zoological regions of the; south, which has never been 

 equalled by any of the later suggestions and would-be 

 improvements, divides the northern ring into two regions, 

 an Qld-WorijjM^jifeja|t.ta,ria a New. It is admitted that 

 NO. T724, YmI.. 67] 



this division is chiefly adopted for the sake of con- 

 venience and not because of any great difference 

 between these two sections. The faunas of the three 

 southern extensions differ widely from each other and 

 also from those of the Holarctic belt. Interest is there- 

 fore concentrated on the point of junction between each 

 southern extension and the northern ring, which more or 

 less directly connects it with the two other extensions. 

 The Ethiopian land-mass is cut off from the belt by a 

 vast desert area. The most peculiar and interesting 

 southern parts of the Indo-Australian mass are cut off 

 by sea, the nearer less peculiar part by the most mighty 

 mountain range in the world. There remains the Neo- 

 tropical extension, in certain groups the most peculiar of 

 the three, in species probably the richest, and, unlike the 

 others, freely connected with the northern belt, the 

 desert barrier penetrated by continuous north-and-south- 

 running mountain ranges. Free continuity at no very 

 distant period is in this case also proved by the re- 

 appearance of characteristic northern genera on the 

 temperate southern Neotropical mountain ranges, such 

 forms being wanting from the corresponding Ethiopian 

 mountains. Furthermore, the east and west ranges of 

 the Old-World part of the belt form barriers against 

 which many plants were driven and exterminated by the 

 advancing cold of the Glacial period, while in the New 

 World the same species were able to escape southwards 

 and return when the period came to an end. 



From these considerations it is obvious that the point 

 of junction between a south-extending land-mass, as 

 peculiar as any of the three and far more freely con- 

 tinuous with the north than any other, is the most 

 interesting and critical region in the world, and one 

 which was bound to throw most light upon the problems 

 of distribution. The vast importance of the thorough 

 working out of this transition area Godman and Salvin 

 had the genius to seize upon, as the result of their 

 first visits, singly or together, in 1857-S, 1859-60, 1861-3 

 — early days, when the " Origin " had only just appeared 

 and the problems of distribution were first beginning 

 to be attacked. So successful was the investigation, 

 and carried on with such energy, enterprise and munifi- 

 cence, that this area, then obscure and little studied, 

 has become probably better known than any other part 

 of the world which can in any way compare with it in 

 richness. The collections have been worked out by the 

 most distinguished specialists, the descriptions published 

 in the " Biologia," and with splendid generosity the 

 whole material, labelled and complete, has been handed 

 over to the nation, so that for all time the British Museum 

 will be the one place in which the biology of Central 

 America must be studied. Whatever may be true of the 

 political sphere, the Monroe Doctrine of learning has 

 been infringed on so magnificent a scale that any attempt 

 at repair is hopeless, and our American friends will pro- 

 bably find their revenge by annexing biological territory 

 in the Old World. 



The completion of the two volumes on the Lepidoptera 

 Rhopalocera of Central America is of especially deep 

 interest. Here, as in the volumes on the bird fauna, we 

 have the labour of the editors themselves,working together 

 as more than brothers until the pathetic death of Osbert 

 Salvin, on June 1, 189S, left the most obscure and difficult 



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