284 ON THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF INSECTS. 



most of these are diurnal in flight, and more than rival the ma- 

 jority of butterflies in their gorgeous hues ; while whole families 

 (e. g. the Qlaucopidce) glitter with metallic hues vying with those 

 of humming-birds. I am at the same time disposed to indorse 

 the judgment of 'Dr. :Boisduval, M. Guenee, and Mr. Murray, 

 that the preeminence for surpassing beauty of right belongs to 

 Urania ffliipheus. 



Looking, however, to Mr. Murray's argument of the evidence 

 of a Brazilian element in the fauna of Madagascar afforded by 

 the presence of Urania, it is well to bear in mind that such con- 

 considerable differences (chiefly shown in the stages of larva aud 

 pupa) exist between U. ffliipheus and the allied Uranides in South 

 America and the West Indies, that the eminent lepidopterist 

 M. Gruenee has not only separated it from them generically, but 

 as the representative of the distinct family Uranidae (Sp. Gen. 

 Lep. t. ix. p. 10). Nor should it be lost sight of that, if the in- 

 dependent testimony of Drury * and Cramer is of any value, 

 either U. ffliipheus or some very close ally inhabits South-eastern 

 Asia. These statements of Indian and Chinese localities for the 

 insect, considered in connexion with the well-known eastern sta- 

 tions of the allied genera Alcidis and Nyctalemon (of both which 

 the earlier states are as yet unknown), seem to afford consider- 

 able ground for the opinion that the presence of Urania in Ma- 

 dagascar may eventually be proved to indicate an Asiatic rather 

 than an American element in the island fauna. 



Cape Town, Feb. 14, 1871. 



* It is not necessary here to enter upon the moot question whether Drury 's 

 insect is to be regarded as a manufactured specimen, combining the head and 

 body of Papilio with the wings of U. Rhipheus, or (as Mr. Butler suggests in Cat. 

 Fab. D. Lep. B. M. p. 288) as a butterfly mimicker of the Urania, because in 

 either case the presence of Urania in China or India, according to the osten- 

 sible habitat, has to be assumed. 



Additional Note to p. 280. — Mr. J. C. Melliss, who has been a resident at St. 

 Helena for some years, informs me that Honey-Bees {Apis, sp.) and Acherontia 

 Atropos were both common in that island for two or three years after his first 

 arrival, but have since disappeared almost simultaneously. The same gentle- 

 man has shown me specimens of a Quadrifid Noctua, Ophiodes Hottentota, Gruen., 

 reared from larvae in St. Helena : this moth is widely distributed in Southern 

 Africa, and is nearly allied to the South-European 0. Tirrhcea, Cram. — E. T., 

 5th September, 1871. 



