860 MR. H. J. ELWES ON THE BUTTERFLIES [NoV. 15, 



with which, as I have shown ia Proc. Zool. Soc. 1873, p. 645 et 

 seq., it is so intimately connected. 



The same remark applies to Formosa, which I have also excluded. 

 Of the Butterflies of North (Jhiua we know almost nothing ; but the 

 little we know shows what a rich harvest is to be reaped there by a col- 

 lector. The countries between China proper and Amurland are terrce 

 incognitce ; but Amurland itself has been recently well worked by 

 several good entomologists : Messrs. Christoph, Dorries, Jankowsky, 

 and Hedemann have all collected largely in various localities, from the 

 Schilka river on the Upper Amur, down to Blagovestchensk, Raddef- 

 skaia or Raddefka, and Khabarofka, all of which are situated on the 

 main stream. The Bureija Mountains north of the river also yielded 

 a rich collection to Radde ; but do not seem to have been revisited. 

 That part of the river which lies between the junction of the Ussuri 

 at Khabarofka and Nikolaiefsk at the mouth of the Amur does not 

 seem to have been much worked, the climate becoming much more 

 severe on the north-east coast. 



The southern part of the maritime province near Yladivostock and 

 the island of Askold seems to have many species not occurring on 

 the Amur which were previously only known from Japan ; and it 

 is probable that the insects of Corea are very similar. An account 

 of Christoph's journey, giving interesting particulars of the country, 

 is published in the 'Stettiner entomologische Zeitung' for 1870, 

 pp. 201 and 401. I have included one or two species which seem 

 to occur only on the Sea of Ochotsk to the northward of Amurland 

 proper; but very little is known of that region or of the great island 

 of Saghalien. 



The only part of Japan which seems to have been at all thoroughly 

 worked by lepidopterists is the neighbourhood of Tokio and Yoko- 

 hama ; and in most cases no exact indication of locality is given for 

 Japanese insects. Of the great southern islands of Sikok and Kiusiu 

 little or nothing is known, though it is possible that some of De 

 rOrza's species came from there. The climate of Southern and Cen- 

 tral Japan is so different from that of the north, that the large pro- 

 portion of species of Indian affinity which is found there can be 

 easily accounted for ; and when we consider the great extent of 

 mountainous unexplored country, it is clear that much must be done 

 before any thing like a good account of the Lepidoptera of Japan can 

 be given. 



The climate of N. China and Amurland is generally very cold in 

 winter, the Peiho and Amur rivers being closed by ice for several 

 months. In the summer it is warm and wet on the coast region, but 

 much drier in the interior, especially in the north of China and Man- 

 tchuria. South of Shanghai the winter becomes so much milder that 

 tropical forms of animal and vegetable life rapidly take the place of 

 temperate ones ; but some species of thoroughly tropical affinities and 

 appearance extend far into North-eastern Asia and Japan, in the 

 same way that some tropical birds migrate to Amurland and North 

 China during the breeding-season. 



In this paper I have taken the genera for the most part as I found 



