INTRODUCTION. 
71 
livers, however, are pretty abundantly supplied, and 
afford many species peculiar to the country. This 
is the metropolitan station of the genus Acrea, and 
it is likewise inhabited by several peculiar groups 
of the genera Papilio, Pieris, &c. The neighbouring 
island of Madagascar is much richer than the con- 
tinent, and exemplifies what has been observed in 
relation to many other islands, that their zoological 
productions by no means correspond to those of the 
nearest portion of the main land. Little relation 
exists between the diurnal lepidoptera of Madagas- 
car and the Cape of Good Hope, but a very close 
one can be traced between the former and those 
inhabiting distant parts of the continent, such as 
Senegal and Sierra Leone. Mauritius and Bourbon 
likewise differ considerably in their lepidopterous 
productions from Madagascar. In the latter, magni- 
ficent Papilios, Acrcece, Euplcew, Pan aides, Uranice, 
Cyrestes , and Xanthidia, embellish by their elegant 
forms and splendid colours, the marshy and pesti- 
lential forests of that extensive island, and rival in 
beauty that majestic and teeming vegetation which 
has always excited the admiration of botanists*. 
New Holland is not without its peculiar species, 
although this department of its zoology is not cha- 
racterised by such marked singularities as are 
observed among its higher animals and vegetable 
productions. 
A singular circumstance has been recorded by a 
See Boisduval, Nouv. Ann. du Museum, vol, ii. 
