422 



ISCIENCK 



[N. S. Vol. XI. No. 272. 



rouud numbers, two thousand species of Rho- 

 palocera in the usually accepted sense of the 

 term occurring in the Ethiopian region. Further 

 explorations are likely to bring to light many 

 species as yet unknown, and the student who 

 is familiar with the subject will see that this 

 is from the standpoint of the lepidopterist one 

 of the richest regions on the globe, the number 

 of species greatly exceeding that represented 

 by the butterfly-faunae of the Palsearctic and 

 Nearctic regions combined. In extra-tropical 

 North America there occur about six hundred 

 and fifty species, and in Europe and extra- 

 tropical Asia together not more than seven 

 hundred species all told. 



A chapter is devoted to terminology. The 

 author's views as to what properly constitutes 

 a generic name are clear, logical, and forcibly 

 expressed. He rejects as nomina nuda the 

 generic terms employed in Hiibner's ' Tenta- 

 men,' Billberg's ' Eaumeratio,' and other 

 "equally worthless publications, which have 

 been regarded as establishing priority for a 

 name, although these names are unaccompanied 

 by any description of the genus, and are only 

 applied to oue, or at most several species." 



The bulk of the work, four hundred and 

 sixtjr-three pages, is taken up in presenting a 

 Synonymic Catalogue of the species, keys to 

 the various families, subfamilies, and genera 

 being provided. This portion of the work 

 cannot fail to be exceedingly useful to the 

 student, and may in general be said to be very 

 well done. Here and there errors are dis- 

 coverable, owing to the fact that the author did 

 not have access to the types of some of the 

 species which he enumerates. It is not, how- 

 ever, the purpose of the writer in the present 

 brief review to point out these occasional 

 blemishes, as attention would be more properly 

 called to them in a journal specifically devoted 

 to entomology. 



The concluding portion of the text, pp. 493- 

 537, is devoted to a discussion of facts relating 

 to the distribution of species in the various 

 zoogeographical subregions of the Ethiopian 

 territory, and the relationship of the butterfly- 

 fauna of Africa to the lepidoptera of other 

 portions of the earth, followed by some ob- 

 servations upon seasonal dimorphism and pro- 



tective mimicry. This is to the general student 

 the most interesting part of the entire treatise, 

 and brings into light some highly interesting 

 facts. 



The Ethiopian butterfly-fauna includes one 

 hundred and twenty-eight genera, of which 

 eighty- six, or nearly 68 per cent, are peculiar to 

 this region. Of the forty-two genera, which 

 occur in the other regions of the earth, eight, 

 Danais, Pyrameis, Libythea, Cupido, Heodes 

 (Chrysophanus, Auctorem), Pieris, Colias, and Pa- 

 pilio a.re laore or less cosmopolitan, while Acraea 

 (sens.lat.), Catopsilia (sens.lat.), and Terias are 

 common to the tropics and sub-tropics of 

 both hemispheres. Of the remaining thirty- 

 one genera which the Ethiopian region pos- 

 sesses in common with other regions, twenty 

 occur in the Indo-malayan, and to some ex- 

 tent also in the Austro-malayan Regions, but 

 are altogether wanting in the Palseacrtic re- 

 gion. These genera are Euplcea, Elymnias, 

 Melanitis, Henotesia, Atella, Salamis, HypoUm- 

 nas, Kallima, Eurytela, Ergolis, Bihlia, Cyres- 

 tis, Abisara, Deudorix, Hypolycsena, Spalgis, 

 Lycseiiesthes, Leptosia, Appias, and Eronia. 

 The genera Yphthima, Precis, Charaxes, Spin- 

 dasis, and Teracolus are Indo-malayan, although 

 they are represented by one or other species in 

 the extreme southern portion of the Palsearctic 

 Region. Argynnis and Neptis are well repre- 

 sented in the Palasarctic and Indo-malayan 

 Regions, Pararge, Brenthis and Phyllocharia are 

 to be classed as Palsearctic genera, though they 

 are represented in the northernmost portion of 

 the Indo-malayan Region, and Brenthis is found 

 in North America, and extends along the west- 

 ern Cordilleras to the extreme southern end of 

 the continent of South America. The only re- 

 maining genus, Sypanartia, is peculiar to Africa 

 and the tropical and subtropical regions of the 

 Western Hemisphere. 



Of the forty-two genera which Africa pos- 

 sesses in common with other regions, all except 

 the three palfearctic genera and Hypanartia are 

 found in the Indo-malayan region. Whether 

 they migrated from Asia into Africa or from 

 Africa into Asia cannot well be determined, but 

 that, if such migration occurred, it must have 

 been at a time whfeu climatic and other condi- 

 tions were widely difierent from what they now 



