392 A Cosmopolitan Butterfly. I. Its Birthplace. (July, 
The present conditions continuing, where now the deep sea- 
blue waters of the lake are flushed with the tints of sunset, a rich 
valley will one day become the home of industry, and its green 
fields will be animated with the flocks of the husbandman. 
A COSMOPOLITAN BUTTERFLY. I. ITS BIRTHPLACE. 
BY SAMUEL H. SCUDDER. 
PP AERE is but one butterfly whose range is so extended as to 
merit the name of cosmopolitan ; it is the Painted Lady or 
Vanessa cardui. With the exception of the arctic regions and 
South America, it is distributed over the entire extent of every 
continent. Australia and New Zealand produce a race peculiar 
to themselves, while the other large islands south of Asia pos- 
sess the normal type, which is also found upon small islands lying 
off the western borders of the Old World, the Azores, Canaries, 
Madeira, and St. Helena. On the other hand, it has not been 
discovered upon the small islands off the American coast, such as 
Guadalupe, the Revillagegidos, and Galapagos on the western 
side, or the Bahamas and Bermudas on the eastern ; neither does 
it occur in any of the Antilles, excepting Cuba, and there but 
rarely. It is reported, however, from islands lying in the mid- 
dle of the Pacific Ocean, such as the Hawaiian group and Tahiti, 
but its actual occurrence there is at least doubtful.? 
(Nouv. Ann. Mus. Nat. Hist., ii. 191) that he possessed specimens from Tahiti, 
geographical statements; moreover, Mr. A. G. Butler does not mention it in his List 
of the Diurnal Lepidoptera of the South Sea Islands (Proc. Zodl. Soc. Lon 
274 seq.), and Dr. C. Pickering, the naturalist of Wilkes’ Exploring Expedition, 
me that it was unknown on Tahiti in 1839. 
The single citation of the Hawaiian Islands will be found in the first list of the 
British Museum Butterflies, where (p. 79) Mr. Doubleday credits four specimens tO 
those islands, two brought by Captain Byron and two by Captain Beechey. łam 
informed by Mr. Butler that there is now only one specimen in the museum from aa 
“Sandwich Islands,” and the reference upon the ticket is to the oldest manuscript 
register, not now to be found. Byron and Beechey were at the islands in 1825-87: 
T. Brigham informs me that V. cardui was not found by Mr. Mann and him- 
self during a twelvemonth’s residence at the islands ten years ago, and I can find no 
authority for its present existence. Dr. Pickering writes: that it was unknown when 
Wilkes’s expedition visited the islands in 1840-41. The Vincennes, to which Pr 
Pickering was attached, was at the islands from the end of September to the begim- 
ning of April. Byron and Beechey’s visits were between the latter part of January 
tells 
