46 



ISLAND LIFE 



PART I 



ficent golden and green Papilionidse of various genera as 

 being unequalled in the world ; while the great Atlas moth 

 is probably the most gigantic of Lepidoptera, being some- 

 times ten inches across the wings, which are also very 

 broad. Among the beetles the strange flat-bodied Malayan 

 mormolyce is the largest of all the Carabida3, while the 

 catoxantha is equally a giant among the Buprestida3. On 

 the whole, the insects of this region probably surpass 

 those of any other part of the world, except South America, 

 in size, variety, and beauty. 



Definition and Characteristic Groups of the Australian 

 Region. — The Australian region is so well marked off from 

 the Oriental, as well as from all other parts of the world, 

 by zoological peculiarities, that we need not take up much 

 time in describing it, especially as some of its component 

 islands will come under review at a subsequent stage of our 

 work. Its most important portions are Australia and New 

 Guinea, but it also includes all the Malayan and Pacific 

 Islands to the east of Borneo, Java, and Bali, the Oriental 

 region terminating with the submarine bank on which 

 those islands are situated. The island of Celebes is in- 

 cluded in this region from a balance of considerations, but 

 it almost equally well belongs to the Oriental, and must 

 be left out of the account in our general sketch of the 

 zoological features of the Australian region. 



The great feature of the Australian region is the almost 

 total absence of all the forms of terrestrial mammalia which 

 abound in the rest of the world, their place being supplied 

 by a great variety of Marsupials. In Australia and New 

 Guinea there are no Insectivora, Carnivora, nor Ungulata, 

 while even the rodents are only represented by a few small 

 rats and mice. In the remoter Pacific Islands mammals 

 are altogether absent (except perhaps in New Zealand), 

 but in the Moluccas and other islands bordering on the 

 Oriental region the higher mammals are represented by a 

 few deer, civets, and pigs, though it is doubtful whether 

 the two former may not have been introduced by man, as 

 was almost certainly the case with the semi-domesticated 

 dingo of Australia.^ These peculiarities in the mammalia 



^ Remains of the dingo have been found fossil in Pleistocene deposits but 

 the antiquity of man in Australia is not known. It is not, however, im- 



