GENERAL NOTES. 
373 
the west of Scotland, but in England, and many of them near 
London.] The strongest-flying genera are usually the most 
widely distributed. The great areas of distribution are there- 
fore not sharply defined, and it is an error to take the distribu- 
tion of the very limited European fauna as the groundwork of a 
system applicable to the whole world. Most of the polar species, 
and those of Europe generally, occur throughout Central and 
northern Asia, while the Mediterranean fauna extends from the 
Canaries through North Africa and Southern Europe some dis- 
tance into Western Asia. The great chains of mountains ex- 
tending more or less continuously from the Caucasus to the 
Pyrenees form the boundary of the Mediterranean fauna on 
the north, and interfere more with the wider spread of species 
than either the Atlantic [?] or the Mediterranean. 
2. Africa, the region of the genera Anthocharis [Callosune]j 
Acrcea, Char axes, and Romaleosoma. The whole of the northern 
part of Africa belongs to the European fauna ; and Africa may 
on the whole be regarded as a second section of it. The whole 
of North Africa, except the Mediterranean fauna, on this side 
the Atlas is very poor in LepidojHcra, compared with the oppo- 
site European coasts, in consequence of the want of great forests, 
and the marshy nature of much of the flat country. Other 
causes are the heat and dryness of the summer, the burning of 
the vegetation by the inhabitants, &c. On the whole, the Lepi- 
dopterous fauna of Africa is very small for the size of the conti- 
nent, owing to the great expanse of territory covered by rainless 
deserts. Several Indian species occur on the coasts of the Red 
Sea. The principal African genera of Rhopalocera are then 
enumerated, and the number of species occurring in Africa and 
the other quarters of the globe compared. The following genera 
are noticed as very poorly represented in Africa : — Eupleea, 
Danais, Theda, and Hesperia. [No true Theda occurs in Africa 
south of the Sahara ; but Africa possesses several characteristic 
genera of Lyccenidee^ 
3. The South- Asiatic or Indian fauna : Asia, the district of 
the genera Ornitlioptera, Danais, Euplcea, Limenitis, Adolias, 
Diadema, and Parnassius. This fauna extends over a still wider 
range than the European, and may be regarded as the original 
stem of the entire Old-World fauna. It extends from the moun- 
tains of Central Asia, throughout India, China, a great part of 
Australia, and the Pacific Islands. Westward it extends to 
Arabia and Syria, where it touches the European fauna. 
4. Australia and Polynesia : the region of the genera Antipo- 
dites, Agarista, Hecatesia, Synemon, Teara, Opsirhina, and Oike- 
ticus. This fauna has without doubt been derived from the 
Indian by migration, insects being conveyed from one district to 
another across the sea by the monsoons. The species would then 
become rapidly modified by the influence of climate. Nothing 
