154 PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 
to favour the existence of the fabled Atlantis or some 
extension of the Cape de Verde Islands, and other rocks, 
such as St. Paul’s Island now existing between Africa and 
South America, which permitted of the passage of these 
creatures from the New to the Old World. 
The Butterflies of the Nearctic Region, which includes all 
North America, at first sight bear a strong resemblance to 
those of the Palasarctic or European Region, and would 
seem to favour the opinion held by some naturalists that 
these two regions should be united ; but the Papilios form 
a handsome group which, though allied to those of the Old 
World, are quite distinct from them. 
The Neotropic Region, which includes Central and South 
America, is the richest in Butterflies in the world, both in 
peculiar families and in number of species. There is the 
combination of a vast tract of land covered by tropical 
forest, together with the varying climate caused by a lofty 
range of snow-clad mountains, the Andes. 
I find it very difficult adequately to illustrate this vast 
and rich region, but I show a few specimens of the genus 
Morpho, confined to South America, and of the Heliconidae 
and Neotropidse, two families also peculiar to the Neotropical 
Region. The West Indian Islands belong to this region, but 
contain a large number of peculiar Butterflies not found in 
South America. I have already mentioned the singular 
connection between the large day-dying Moths, the Uranias 
of the West Indies and Madagascar, and now I would like to 
point our that there is another interesting connection between 
another group of large day-dying Moths, the Castnias of 
South America and of Australia, showing some early connection 
between these two parts of the earth’s surface, and as in the case 
of the West Indies and Madagascar, the connection indicated 
by the Moths was strengthened by the small insectivorous 
mammals peculiar to both localities and found nowhere 
else ; so in the case of the Castnias, there is the curious 
