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A CATALOGUE OF THE LEPIDOPTERA OF HAINAN. 



By J. J. JOICEY and G. TALBOT. 



PAET I. 

 1.— INTBODUCTION. 



The island of Hainan lies in the Gulf of Tonking, and is separ- 

 ated from the Liu-chow Peninsula by a narrow strait. The island 

 is about 175 miles long and about 100 miles wide. The climate is 

 unhealthy and the country rough and mostly in an unsettled state. 



Entomologists who have collected on the island have encountered 

 much difficulty in the interior, chiefly owing to the climate and rough 

 travelling. Only four important collections of Lepidoptera have been 

 made on this island. 



In 1878 (Proc Zool. Soc, p. 695) F. Moore published a list of the 

 Lepidoptera collected by the late B. Swinhoe. He recorded seventy- 

 five forms of Bhopalocera and eight Heterocera which Swinhoe obtained 

 during his ornithological researches in 1868. 



In 1887 (Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc, pp. 111-124, pis. i and ii) Dr. 

 W. J. Holland published a list of the forms collected by the Bev. B. C. 

 Henry, and recorded eighty-eight Bhopalocera. 



The famous ornithological collector, John Whitehead, visited 

 Hainan in 1889, and unfortunately succumbed to fever in the Five 

 Finger Mountains. He added largely to our knowledge of the birds 

 and made a collection of butterflies which contained several new 

 forms. This collection was made the subject of a paper by Philip 

 Crowley in the Proc. Zool. Soc, 1900, p. 505, pi. xxxv. A total of 

 106 forms of Bhopalocera is recorded. 



Since this paper of Crowley's, no separate list has been published 

 on the Lepidoptera of the island, but many forms have been recorded 

 in periodicals and in the work of Seitz : " The Macrolepidoptera of 

 the Globe." 



The catalogue compiled by us now brings the number of different 

 forms of Bhopalocera to over 250, even though some names have had 

 to sink. This increase in our knowledge is due largely to the efforts of 



