534 MR, A. G. BUTLER ON THE BUTTERFLIES OF MALACCA. 



enough, is found both in Java and the Australian Region, whilst a dwarfed form of it is 

 taken in the Philippines ; yet D. nerina, although more widely distributed than D. bolina, 

 exhibits even less individual variation. 



The fact of two species of Terias, discovered in the New Hebrides, turning up in 

 Malacca, is somewhat startling ; but it is quite possible, in a genus where only a prac- 

 tised eye can at once detect the specific differences, that the same form of imago may 

 have been simultaneously developed in both localities ; moreover, breeding might (as it 

 often does) reveal constant and well-marked distinctive characters whereby the earlier 

 stages could at once be separated. 



The following Note, which appears to me to be worthy of the consideration of natu- 

 ralists, has been communicated by my friend Mr. W. L. Distant, who was for some years 

 resident at Province Wellesley : — 



" All catalogues of the Penang fauna must be accepted with some qualifications. The 

 dependencies of Penang and Province "Wellesley are usually made more or less into one 

 zoological province, especially as regards the insects. This I found to be the case when 

 collecting there a few years ago, all collections being then made indiscriminately from 

 both localities. 



" The island of Penang is about 20 miles long by 9 miles broad, comprising an area 

 of about 107 square miles. A group of granite hills occupies about two thirds of its 

 extent, running through its centre from north to south, bounded by a plain on their 

 eastern and western sides. These hills are densely covered with a beautiful forest on all 

 sides ; and their highest point, West Hill, is about 2600 feet above the sea. 



" Province Wellesley is situated on the Malayan peninsula, and is separated from 

 Penang by a strait from 2 to 10 miles broad ; it is about 35 miles in length, averaging 

 8 miles in width. Although it possesses many hills of a considerable elevation (yet not 

 equalling those of the island of Penang), its general character is more of a plain, in which 

 jungle tracts and cultivated lands of rice and sugar-cane are its characteristics. Man- 

 grove swamps, often of great extent, exist in the neighbourhoods of its many creeks and 

 rivers. 



" There is little doubt that, when the floras and faunas of these two districts are 

 worked out separately and distinctly, a common character will be found to pervade them 

 both, but that many species will be found locally distinct and constant. Species may be 

 expected to exist in the lofty wooded regions of Penang that are absent in the plains and 

 less elevated hills of Province Wellesley. At present, however, when mixed collections 

 are made from both regions, the habitat ' Penang ' must be accepted as not representing 

 the insular fauna alone, but comprising also that of a portion of the Malayan 

 peninsula." 



