JOURNAL 



OF THE 



ASIATIC SOCIETY OF BENGAL 



Vol. LXVII. Part II. — NATURAL, SCIENCE. 

 No. II.— 1898. 



An Annotated List of the Butterflies of the Ke Isles,— By Lionel 

 de Nicetille, F.E.S., C.M.Z.S., Sfc, and Heinrich Kuhn. 



(With Plate I.) 



[ Received November 25th, 1897 ; Read January 5th, 1898.] 



The Ke, Key, or Kei Isles,* called by the natives the Evar Isles, have 

 a total area of about 680 square miles, and have been in the possession of 

 the Dutch since A.D. 1645. They lie south of the equator, also to the 

 south of Dutch New Guinea, to the south-east of the large island of Cerara 

 and the nearer small Banda group of isles, to the west of the Aru group 

 of isles, and to the north of the Timor Laut or Tenimber Islands, They 

 are placed between 5° '0'-6 o -5' S. Lat. and 131° -50-133° -15' E. Long. 

 They may be divided into four parts : — I. Great Ke Isle or Noehoe Ioefc, 

 II. Little Ke or Noehoe Roa, III. the Tiandoe islets, IV. the Koer 

 isleta. The last, according to Professor K. Martin, formed once a part of 

 the eastern extension of the continent of Asia, while the first three ap- 

 pertain to the Australian region. Great Ke has a tertiary formation, 

 consisting of limestone rocks ; the surface is hilly, rising to nearly 

 3,000 ft. elevation. Little Ke and the other islands are all of coral forma- 

 tion, and are port-tertiary or quaternary. Wherever the soil and situation 

 are favourable, the islands are planted with cocoa-nut and bread-fruit 

 trees. The islands to the south of Little Ke are from the evidence of 

 the rocks of an older formation of the quaternary period. All the 



* Pronounced " kay," or exactly as the letter " K, " says Dr. A. R. Wallace in 

 " The Malay Archipelago. " 

 J. ii. 32 



