280 



MR. R. TRIMEN'S NOTES ON THE GEOGRAPHICAL 



" The butterflies seem as badly represented as the birds ; and I 

 would recommended to the consideration of the advocates of in- 

 troduction by chance dispersal the fact that the two classes of 

 animals best provided with means of dispersal are precisely 

 those which, along with the mammals, are least represented. I 

 can find no published notice of any Lepidoptera in St. Helena. 

 No specimens of any exist in the British Museum ; and the soli- 

 tary species that I can learn by inquiry to have been met with 

 is the Cynthia Cardui" On this I wish to remark that, on the 

 1st August 1859, in a garden towards the higher part of the 

 valley in which James Town is situated, I captured, during less 

 than half an hour, five species of Lepidoptera, and secured the 

 larva of a sixth species. Concerning these, I find in my journal 

 that Danais Chrysippus and Pyrameis Cardui were abundant, Ly- 

 ccena bcetica common, Hymenia recurvalis not uncommon, and 

 Botys otreusalis " in hosts." The larva was that of a Quadrifid 

 Noctua, and resulted in Achtea Melicerta, Drury ; it was resting 

 on a grass (Coix lachryrna) known as " Job's Tears." A fourth 

 butterfly, Diadema Misippus (D. Bolina, auct.), I found among 

 the relics of the Burchell Collection, so religiously preserved at 

 Oxford by Professor Westwood. The three butterflies taken by 

 myself have been recorded as inhabitants of St. Helena in my 

 ' Ehopalocera Africse Australis ' (pt. i. pp. 90 & 121, and pt. ii. 

 p. 237), and the Diadema in my paper " on Mimetic Analogies 

 among African Butterflies," published in the 'Transactions of 

 the Linnean Society ' (vol. xxvi. pp. 504 & 513, note), where I 

 show how curiously that butterfly's range corresponds with the 

 distribution of its model, Chrysippus. In looking at this scanty 

 list of species *, which I cannot doubt could be considerably 

 increased by any collector resident in the island, it is very notice- 

 able that all seven are prolific and widely dispersed insects f, 

 whose present distribution evinces their special aptitude for 

 seizing upon and persistently occupying new stations, and that 

 they are thus the very description of forms which one would 



* Godart states (Encyc. Meth. ix. p. 709) that Urania Bhipheus, " selon M. 

 Bory de Saint-Vincent, se trouverait a Sainte-Helene ;" but some confirmation 

 of this report must be received before we can make so magnificent an addition 

 to the fauna of the island. 



t Pyrameis Cardui and Hymenia recurvalis are found all over the world ; a 

 range only second to theirs characterizes Danais Chrysippus, Diadema Misippus, 

 and Lyccena bcetica ; Achcea Melicerta is recorded from the Punjaub, Ceylon, Ce- 

 lebes, and Moreton Bay ; and Botys otreusalis inhabits both Congo and the Cape. 



