MICB.OLEPID OPTEKA OP NEW GUINEA 
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in the Papuan region. The present collection is almost disappointing 
except for two extensive genera, Lecithocera, with an almost cosmopolitan 
distribution, except for America and New Zealand, with 130 Papuan species, 
of which 19 from the Central Region, all of them new; and Crocanthes, 
diendogenic for the Papuan region and Australia, but probably originating 
from the former. Of the other sixteen genera collected by the Expedition, 
four are endemic and five cosmopolitan or nearly so; of the remaining four 
apodemic genera Ilemiarcha and Asmenistis are Australian endogenics, 
each with one endemic species; while Hyptiastis and Periphorectis, also 
with one endemic species each, seem to be of Indian origin. 
The Cosmopterigidae is a family of mostly small insects of w'hich 
the genera are taxonomically rather insufficiently known. The collection 
contains two circumtropical genera, three endemic, and two apodemic. 
Of the apodemic genera, Dorodoca is of Indian, Proterocosma of Australian 
origin ; once more the elements of these two faunas are equally represented. 
Of the endemics, N eachandella may be mentioned, an interesting genus 
showing a correlation with the family Metachandidae (which is endogenic 
in the Mascarene Islands and occurs also in India and Java, but is not 
known from the Papuan region). 
The Scaeosophidae, a small family of Indian character, but occurring 
also in Australia and Africa, are represented by four genera, two from the 
Central Region, both of them endemic. 
The Xyloryctidae represent probably the most conspicuous indicator 
among the Microlepidoptera of the correlation of Papuan and Australian 
faunas. They are moths of often very large, even gigantic size and are 
limi ted to these two regions in a number of mostly diendogenic genera, but 
with endemic species in each country. It is not easy to ascertain where 
the family comes from. The genera Xylorycta and Pkthonerodes are much 
more numerous in Australia and seem to be exogenic for New Guinea. At 
the other hand, Cryptophasa is richly represented in both New Guinea and 
Australia, and must be regarded as an example of diendogenic distribution. 
However this may be, evidence for our argument of the independence of 
the Papuan fauna is furnished by the fact that this genus has developed 
an important zoocentre in the Papuan region: there are not less than 35 
Papuan species of Cryptophasa of which only one was recorded from 
elsewhere, viz., the Moluccas, and none are known to occur in Australia! 
Furthermore, Paralecta, although less extensive, may be considered 
diendogenic as u r ell, comprising 13 endemic Papuan species; a straggler 
species of a quite unusual facies has been described from Malaya. Arignota, 
hitherto known only from Australia, is represented in the Central Region 
by two endemic species. As to endemic genera^ six have been collected by 
the Expedition. 
The Stenomidae, hitherto closely correlated with or even merged into 
the Xyloryctidae, but in our opinion distant from them, occur in both 
Australian and Papuan regions, but are not numerous in either; they are 
