RHOPAL OCI JIA MALA YANA. 



developed in either homisphoiv/" Ami the same author, in a populur nmmur, has drawn 

 attention to the migration of characteristic South American mammals to North America in 

 the l'ost-Plioeene epoch. \ 



Now facts point to a similar conclusion respecting this distribution of the butterflies* In 

 the European Eocene formations at Aix, in Provence, five fossil butterflies have been discovered 

 and described. Of these two belong to the Safytidtt (to which the Morphime are allied), and 

 Mr. So udder, who has written an excellent monograph on Fossil Butterflies and particularly 

 studied these fossils, thus concludes: — "Three out of the five Aix butterflies therefore find 

 their nearest living allies in the Indo-Malayan region, one is most closely related to forms now 

 found in Tropical America, and one is at home in its own resting place." { Mr. Thisel ton -Dyer 

 Ijiis pointed uii! similar coincidences with plants, especially in the tropical order Ti'mstrtnnhtnt', 

 ** Out of thirty-two genera as many as five are represented in the Indo-Malayan and South 

 American floras," § and he inclines to the view of a transverse connection between the different 

 branches of the tropical flora in the northern hemisphere during the early part of the Tertiary 

 period. || 



This group possesses considerable affinity with the S&fywme, not only by the ocelkted 

 spots on the nnder-surfaces of the posterior wings, but also in the larval form, as shown by 

 the two figures (figs. 18 & 19). Both of these possess bifid tails, fl" as in that subfamily, though 

 one only has the head hicornuted,** The details of the larval forms of the different species in 

 this group are much desiderated, 



Six genera are found iu the Malay Peninsula. 



* ♦ Tropical Nature/ p. 839. 



| Ibid. The whole discussion is carried out more fully iu the same author's 1 Geogr, Distr. Aniui.' 



\ " Fossil Butterflies," Mem. Am. Ass. Adv. Sewn. Iti7:>, p. 77. An excellent rcuntnf and description of the fossil 

 entomology of Aix has been given by Mr. Herbert Goss, iu "The Inflect Funna of the llecent and Tertiary Periods," Proc. 

 Geol. Assoc. v. n. 6, p. 2fJ (1877). 



§ 14 On Plant-Distrib, as a Field for Geogr. HeBearch." From Proc. Geogr. Soc, vol. xxii, u. G, p. 30 (1878). 

 Ibid. p. 24. 



Norn. — It kofl been generally assumed that a land- connection existed in Tertiary times between Europe ami America. 

 Thus Prof. Boyd Dawkins, one of the latest exponents, declares {' Early Man in Britain." p. 2t>K "The chief botanists of the 

 present time— Hooker, Jjyer, Bn porta, Item, and Asa Gray— are agreed that the m >rth polar region wafi die centre from 

 which tiie Tertiary floras have been dispersed over the Now and Old Worlds;" and the same author [ibid, p, 2ttj considers 

 that there ift cadence to prove the existence of a great Eocene continent, which including Britain uheu connected with 

 Western France) extended to America by way of Iceland and Greenland, and was continuous with Norway and Spitsbergen. 

 "This great north-western continent or northern Atlantis/ 1 existed through the Eocene and Miocene ages. ** offering a means 

 of free migration for plants and animals, and it was not finally broken up by submergence ' 1 til] the beginning »f tin- Plioc<-uo 

 age* Mr. A. Tylor (Geol. Mag. vol. ik. p. 4*8i. arguing that "the elevation of the Alps in the Mioeem pciv-d must have been 

 accompanied by a much larger movement of depression/" thinks that probably "at the time a Miocene island or continent 

 (near Plato's Atlantis) iu the Atlantic was suddenly depressed. " 



An alternative hypothesis to that of now submerged laud-connection has been formulated by Mr, A. Tylor <Geol. 

 Mag, vol, ix. 392), that in the Glacial period the ice-cap nt the Poles was sufficient to reduce the level of the »ea by at 

 least 000 feet; and Mr, Belt (' Naturalist in Nicaragua, 1 p. 200) wan willing to propose a lowering of the level of the sea 

 to 1000 feet. 



If The larv&i of Morplta laertes and if. tpistrophis, as figured by Dr. Burtneiater (Descrip. Physiq. do la Bepubl. Argent. 

 — BnenoB Ay res — vol. v. Atlas, pi. vii. f. 1,2, 8 P -1), have the caudate anal appendages rudimentary, but still distinct. Iu the 

 representation of the larva of Mvrpfw avhiitet by Mtne. Merian (MeUmorph, Insect. tiuriiiamena. pL vii,), the structural 

 details of which have not been criticised by Dr. Bunneister iu his reference to the same, these "bihd tails" are prominently 

 developed. 



** Dr.Burmeistor iu the text of the above quoted work (p. lWlh, in the diagnosis of his section Mtirphiibe of his subfamily 

 Morpftoitlea, writes "Gheiiilies sans comes hur la tote," which, though true of the genus Murjiho, is certainly contrary to the 

 structure of the larva of Amathutia phulipptt* as here figured, 



