Honialota, S^c. 481 



2. Honialota piihesccns, Heer, Faun. Col. Helv. i. 329, 22. 



bolelobia, Thorns. Ofv. af Vet. Ac. Foih. (1856), 



96, 1.3. 



Athcta , Thorns. Skand. Coleopt. iii. 78,26. 



Honialota nigritula, Fairm. et Laboulb. Faun. Ent. Fr. iii. 416, 



75 (1854). 

 , Kraatz, Ins. Deutschl. p. 276, 84 (in 



parte). 

 -, Waterh. Catal. of Brit. Col. p. 18, No. 



50. 



XXXIX. On the Geographical Distribution of European 

 Rhopalocera. By W. F. Kirby, Esq. 



[Read 5th January, 1863.] 



Important as a knowledge of the geographical distribution of 

 species in different parts of the world is, the subject has been 

 greatly neglected, at least among Entomologists generally, though 

 the Germans have paid some attention to it. It would require 

 a much greater knowledge of exotic species and Entomological 

 bibliography than I can pretend to, to give anything like an ade- 

 quate idea of the distribution of the whole of the Rhopalocera ; 

 however, I have recently been studying that of the European 

 species, and have accumulated sufficient data for a paper on the 

 subject. At the same time I do not intend to exclude all reference 

 to species not occurring in Europe, but the distribution of which 

 is worthy of notice. 



In order to make myself perfectly intelligible, it will be as 

 well to state plainly what I mean by the terms " species," 

 "variety," &c., throughout the present paper. A variety is 

 simply an unusual departure from the normal form or colouring 

 of an insect, caused by accidental circumstances acting on one or 

 two individuals of a race only, and not affecting the majority 

 of the species. A permanent variety is a variation affecting 

 a considerable number of individuals of a species, but not all, 



