308 h, de Niceville — On a small collection of [No. 2, 



On a small collection of Butterflies from Buru in the Moluccas. — By Lionel 



de Nice>ille, F.E.S., C.M.Z.S., &c. 



[ Received 25th June ; Read 3rd August, 1898.] 



As far as I am aware, no list has been published on the butterflies of 

 Buru. As local and in especial insular lists of fauna are of particular 

 interest for distributional and other, reasons, I have thought it advis- 

 able to prepare the list given below. The material on which it is based 

 is small, and consists of but few examples of each species. It is not 

 known to me into whose hands the lmlk of the collection has fallen. 

 The specimens were collected early in 1897 (he visited the island a few 

 years previously) by Mr. William Doherty, aided by native (Indian) 

 collectors, and are labelled as from Kayeli. This place is marked 

 Kajeli in my Dutch maps, and lies to the north-east of the island, and 

 there is a district, fort, and deep bay of this name. In English the 

 fort is sometimes written Cayeli. The island of Buru (Bperoe in 

 Dutch, Bouru in German, Bourou in French) is one of the largest of the 

 Moluccas or true Spice Islands, and it lies a little south of the equator, 

 between 3° and 4° S. Jjat., and 126°-12720 E. Long. IJast of Buru is 

 the large island of Ceram, with the small Amboina or Ambon group of 

 islands to the south-west of Ceram again ; west of Buru is the very 

 large island of Celebes. Buru has the Ceram Sea to the north and the 

 Banda Sea to the south. In shape it is a very regular oval with its 

 longer axis lying parallel with the equator, it is about 85 miles in 

 length by 40 in breadth, and has an area of nearly 2,000 square miles. 

 The northern portion of the island produces the plant from which is 

 extracted the far-famed Cayaput or Cajaput-oil ; and that curious 

 mammal, the Babirusa, is found in the island as well as in Celebes. 



Reference is made below to all such species recorded from Buru ql 

 which I have been able to find records. In the entomological portion 

 of ' The Voyage of the Astrolabe ' Dr. Boisduval records 23 species from. 

 Bourou. Dr. A. R. Wallace in his Pieridde of the Indian and Australian 

 Regions gives 16 species, and in his Notes on Eastern Butterflies records 

 one species of the subfamily Elymniinse and five of the Nymjphalwse from 

 Bouru. Those species not seen by me have an asterisk prefixed to their 

 names. The present collection consists of 93 species only, of which 

 J have not seen 29. 



Family NYMPHALID^. 

 Subfamily Danainj:. 

 \. *Hestia (Nectaria) aza, Boisduval. 



Bourou (Boisduval), Bouru (Moore). In my collection from Ternate 

 and Gilolo. 



