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XXI. The Butterflies of Malacca*. By Arthur Gardiner. Butler, F.L.S, F.Z.S., 
Senior Assistant in the Zoological Department, British Museum. 
(Plates LXVIII., LXIX.) 
Read December 21st, 1876. 
TlIE generosity of Captain Stackhouse Pinwill, who has presented to the British 
Museum the whole of the Lepidoptera collected by himself during some years* residence 
in Malacca and Penang, has enabled me to study (with, I trust, some degree of profit to 
others as well as to myself) the Lepidopterous fauna of the Malayan peninsula. As I 
was obliged to go over the whole of the spocies hitherto recorded from Malaysia, and as 
Captain PinwilTs collection is the most complete one hitherto received from the penin- 
sula, I determined not to lose the present opportunity of making a complete list of the 
Butterflies as yet known to occur at Malacca, comparing them at the same time, by means 
of a table, with the species hitherto received from India, China, Siam, and the islands 
to the south of the peninsula. 
Of the 258 species now registered from Malacca, 36 appear to be endemic ; of the 
remainder rather more than a fourth occur either at Assam or Nepal, more than a 
seventh at Moulmein, less than a seventh at Ceylon, nearly two fifths (apparently) in 
the island of Penang, about two elevenths at Singapore, about three sevenths in Borneo, 
about three sixteenths in Sumatra, more than a third in Java, about two thirteenths in 
Siam, rather more than a tenth in China, two species in the New Hebrides, and six in 
Australia. We see therefore that, with the exception of the last-mentioned eight 
species, the Butterflies of Malacca are limited to the Indian Begion ; there are, however, 
several forms occurring in the Australian Begion which some Lepidopterists would not 
regard as specifically distinct, such as the various allied forms of Danais , Melanitis , 
Mycalesis , Dolescliallia , Neptis , Diadema , Cynthia , Junonia , Lampides , Amblypodla , 
Catopsilia , and Papilio. All of these are, nevertheless, characterized by slight but con- 
stant differences, and consequently have a right to be regarded as distinct species. 
It appears to me to be important to those who desire conscientiously to study the 
geographical distribution of animals, to discriminate between even the most nearly allied 
species. I believe that few things have more retarded zoological geography than the 
reckless association together of so-called “ local varieties ” under the same specific name. 
I will cite an instance in illustration of what I mean. Some Lepidopterists still assert 
that JDladema bolina ranges from Northern India to New Zealand, whereas that species 
does not occur outside the Indian Begion. Allied forms, indeed, are common throughout 
the Moluccas, Australia, and the South Pacific ; and one of them (I), nerina ), strange 
* Two of tho new species mentioned in the present paper, and an abstract of the whole, have already appeared in 
the Society’s Journal (Zool. vol. xiii. p. 115 and p. 196 respectively). 
SECOND SERIES. — ZOOLOGY, VOL. I. 4 B 
