300 The Insect Fcmna of Van Biemerv's Land. 



not be considered as one entire country like Africa and 

 America^ but it must be divided into tliree parts. The first 

 embraces those islands to the north of New Holland^ with 

 New Guinea^ and New Ireland. They belong to the Indian 

 Archipelago^ not only geographically, but also in the 

 character of their Fauna and Flora ; they are most closely 

 allied to the Moluccas, having the same luxuriant, rich 

 vegetation ; and although they are remarkable in ornithology 

 as being the sole habitat of the birds of Paradise, they 

 present no entomological forms foreign to the Asiatic 

 Islands. (^) They are remarkable, as well as the Moluccas, 

 for their numerous Lepidopterce. (t) The second part of Aus- 

 tralasia comprehends all those small islands in the Pacific 

 Ocean which have been elevated at a more recent date : they 

 are covered with rich and dense vegetation, but their Fauna 

 is extremely poor, and will not bear any comparison with 

 the luxm'iant growth of the vegetable world. (J) Lesson 

 found this vegetation so similar to that of India, that 



(*). I bring forward the well-known genera of Cicindela, TJierates, and Tricon- 

 dyla as examples. 



(f). D'Urville, Voy. cle I'Astrolabe, EntomoL, pp. 23-31. DeHaan, Treatise on 

 the Natural History of the Dutch East Indian Islands. Eezitt. Zool. IH., S. 3. 



(J). Boisduval (Voy. de I'Astrolabe, Entomologie, p. 32) expresses the hope that 

 the time wJ.U come when its zoology will be of some importance. He says — " The 

 vegetation, which is alrea'ily varied and luxuriant, must naturally appear earlier 

 than the iasect world, to which it serves as food, and this again earlier than 

 insectivorous birds.'' The ground of this opinion is a belief in the continuous 

 creation of new species. Until, however, experience has confirmed this view, 

 which appears to be founded on a visionary natural philosophy, rather than on a 

 plain, we must not renounce the other view, according to which the organisms 

 of these islands were carried thither from the West, in the course of centuries, by 

 winds and currents : hence the slight individuality presented by the Flora and 

 Fauna of these islands, the decUne of their organisms to the eastward, and the 

 great superiority of their vegetable world ; for animals are less easily distributed 

 than plants. That such a distribution is not impossible may be proved by the 

 fact, tliat insects and plants have found their way from K". America to Great 

 Britain. Thus, JSriocaulon sejifangulare is by no means an European species of 

 this peculiarly American genus, but it is identical with an American species^ 

 (S. Kuntb, Enum, Plant., III., p. 54,1.) 



