76 FOSSIL BUTTERFLIES. 



P&pulus latior Br., P. mutahilis Heer., P. Heliadum Ung., Betula Di'yadum 

 Brongn. and B. prisca Ett. Three species of Ulmus are also recorded from the 

 same place. 



Excepting in a single case, there is then no difficulty in finding, in the very 

 beds in which the butterflies occur, remains of plants, which in all probability 

 served them as food during the larval stage ; and even in this single instance, a 

 plant not far removed from those upon which species of the genus now feed, occurs 

 in the same strata. 



PRESENT DISTRIBUTION OF BUTTERFLIES MOST NEARLY 

 ALLIED TO FOSSIL SPECIES. 



To discuss this question properly we must consider the butterflies of each 

 geological horizon separately. 



BUTTERFLIES OF THE LIGURIAN (Upper Eocene). 



The nearest living ally of Neorinopis sepulta is, with little doubt, Neorina 

 Lowi, which, like the other members of the genus, is found in the Indo-Malayan 

 region. The same is strictly true of the species of Zophoessa, Debis and Lethe, 

 with which we have been obliged to compare this fossil. Ccelites has also been 

 used in comparison, and most of the species of this group belong to the same 

 region, although one is described by Felder from Celebes on the confines of the 

 Austro-Malayan region. "We have also pointed out (as Butler has done, but in 

 incorrect points) its relation to Antirrhaja, a Brazilian genus, but this' is too distant 

 to be given much weight. The closest allies of N. sepulta are to be found in the 

 Indo-Malayan region. 



The same is true, but not to so striking a degree, of Lethites Reynesii. 

 We have compared this also to Debis, Lethe and Neorina, and especially to the 

 two former; and all three of these genera, which are certainly its nearest allies, 



