7.56 MR. A. G. BUTLER ON [NoV. 3, 



2. An Account of two Collections of Lepidoptera recently- 

 received from Somali-land. By Arthur G. Butler, 

 F.L.S., Y.Z.S., &c. 



[Eeceived August 5, 1885.] 

 (Plate XLVII.) 



At the meeting held on the 4th November, 1884, I had the 

 pleasure of brinjiing; before the Society an account of a collection 

 sent to the British Museum by Major J. W. Yerbury from Aden '. 



Along with his Aden collection Major Yerbury forwarded to 

 me a small but interesting series collected by him in the spring of 

 1884 on the Somali coast. 



During the present year a second much larger series, collected by 

 Messrs. J. G. Thrupp, Lort-Pbillips, and James during an expedition 

 southwards into the interior of Somali from Berbera, was presented 

 by them to the Museum. These Lepidoptera, as 1 am assured by 

 Mr. Lort-Phillips, were principally obtained upon a plateau com- 

 mencing at about forty miles from the coast and extending due south 

 for about 200 miles, the time of collecting being about four months. 



Since the two collections together contain examples of .5.5 species, 

 some idea of the geographical relationships of the fauna can be gained 

 from them ; the annexed table shows that the relationship to Aden 

 is very strongly marked, no less than twenty-one species being iden- 

 tical and three nearly allied to Aden forms ; next in order comes 

 Abyssinia, twelve species identical and nine allied ; thirdly, Kilima- 

 njaro, ten, and probably eleven, species identical and three allied ; 

 lastly, Natal, nine or ten species identical and fourteen allied. 



Omitting from the fifty-five species seven forms not known to 

 exist elsewhere and to which allied types are not yet recorded (so far 

 as I have been able to discover), nearly half the known Butterflies 

 and Moths of Somali are Aden species, a quarter Abyssinian, a 

 fifth Kilimanjarian, and a fifth Natal. The allied or representative 

 types I consider of less importance, especially in the case of so well- 

 worked a locality as Natal when compared with localities so little 

 known as Kilima-njaro or even Abyssinia, from both of which not a 

 few types closely related to those of Somali may confidently be 

 expected to come. On the other hand, if the nineteen new species 

 in these collections be omitted from our calculations, nearly four 

 sevenths of the remainder are identical with species found in Aden. 

 I think, therefore, it may fairly be concluded that the Lepidopterous 

 fauna is essentially Arabian in character ; but, since the species of 

 Arabia have a much closer affinity to those of Africa than Asia, it 

 seems reasonable to conclude that they have for the most part 

 immigrated from the African coast and originated in Egypt, Nubia, 

 Abyssinia, and Somali-land. 



1 SeeP.Z. S. 1884, p. 478. 



