CHAP. XXI.] 
INSECTS. 
483 
North and South America; S merinthus (29 sp.), all regions 
except Australia. Our Death’s Head Moth (Aclierontia atropos) 
ranges to Sierra Leone and the Philippine Islands, 
General Remarks on the Distribution of the Diurnal Lepicloptera 
and Sphingidea. 
The Diurnal Lepidoptera or Butterflies, comprehend 431 
genera and 7,740 species, arranged in 16 families, according to 
Mr. Kirby’s Catalogue published in 1871. The Sphingidea con- 
sist of 135 genera and 1,255 species, arranged in 7 families, 
according to the British Museum Catalogue dated 1864 ; and as 
this includes all Mr. Bates’ collections in America and my own 
in the East, it is probable that no very large additions have 
since been made. 
The distribution of the families and genera of Butterflies 
corresponds generally with that of Birds — and more especially 
with that of thePasserine birds— in showing a primary division of 
the earth into Eastern and Western, rather than into Northern and 
Southern lands. The Neotropical region is by far the richest and 
most peculiar. It possesses 15 families of butterflies, whereas the 
other regions have only from 8, in the Pakearctic, to 12 in the 
Ethiopian and Oriental regions ; and as none of the Old World 
regions possess any peculiar families, the New World has a very 
clear superiority. In genera the preponderance is still greater, 
since the Neotropical region possesses about 200 altogether 
peculiar to it, out of a total of 431 genera, many of which are 
cosmopolitan. Comparing, now, the Eastern regions with the 
Western, we have two peculiar families in the former to 4 in the 
latter ; while the Southern regions (Australian and Neotropical) 
possess not a single peculiar family in common. 
In the Sphingidea the same general features recur in a less 
marked degree, the Neotropical being the richest region; but 
here we have one family (Castniidae) which appears to be con- 
fined to the two southern regions, — the Australian and Neo- 
tropical. 
The distribution of the genera affords us some facts of special 
interest, which must be briefly noticed. There are several 
i i 2 
