442 



INSECTS. 



[Chap. XII. 



List of Ceylon Insects. 



For the following list of the insects of the island, 

 and the remarks prefixed to it, I am indebted to Mr. F. 

 Walker, by whom it has been prepared after a careful 

 inspection of the collections made by Dr. Templeton, 

 Mr. E. L. Layard, and others; as well as of those in the 

 British Museum and in the Museum of the East India 

 Company. 1 



" A short notice of the aspect of the island will afford the 

 best means of accounting, in some degree, for its entomological 

 Fauna : first, as it is an island, and has a mountainous central 

 region, the tropical character of its productions, as in most 

 other cases, rather diminishes, and somewhat approaches that 

 of higher latitudes. 



" The coast-region of Ceylon, and fully one-third of its 

 northern part, have a much drier atmosphere than that of the 

 rest of its surface ; and their climate and vegetation are nearly 

 similar to those of the Carnatic, with which this island may 

 have been connected at no very remote period. 2 But if, on 

 the contrary, the land in Ceylon is gradually rising, the dif- 

 ference of its Fauna from that of Central Hindustan is less 

 remarkable. The peninsula of the Dekkan might then be 

 conjectured to have been nearly or wholly separated from the 

 central part of Hindustan, and confined to the range of 

 mountains along the eastern coast ; the insect-fauna of which 

 is as yet almost unknown, but will probably be found to have 

 more resemblance to that of Ceylon than to the insects of 



1 The entire of the new species scriptions have been taken, have 

 contained in this list have been been at his desire transferred to 

 described in a series of papers by the British Museum for future re- 

 Mr. Walker in successive numbers ference and comparison, 

 of the Annals of Natural History 2 On the subject of this conjec- 

 (1858 — 61): those from Dr. Tem- ture see ante, p. 60. 

 pleton's collection of which de- 



