6 
INTRODUCTION. By Dr. A. Seitz. 
removed from the typical Notodontid-forms, whilst the characteristic genera, otherwise widely distributed, 
are wanting, for instance the true puss-moths, which are distributed over all the other parts of the world. 
This absence of Cerura south of the Sahara is so much the more striking that to the north of it these 
moths occur in a number which is only approached in single districts of East Asia and never reached in 
Europe. I saw in North Africa clusters of old poplars which showed not the slightest remains of a leaf; 
so completely had they been defoliated by the Dicranuva larvae. Whether the Cape Dicranuropsis vilis Fldr. 
is very nearly allied to Dicranura or Cerura I have not been able to decide. — That the genus Plialera, 
which is widely distributed in the Old World, is not represented in Africa, is a parallel phenomenon to the 
circumstance mentioned above. 
The Sphingidae, on account of their powerful and protracted flight, do not show so many species 
confined to smaller districts as do more sluggish families of Lepidoptera. The Ethiopian Region has not 
quite a quarter of all the known Sphingids, among them very many species peculiar to itself. Here again 
is seen the remarkable circumstance that the Sahara forms a restrictive barrier even for these powerful 
fliers, which cross the Mediterranean Sea with ease, for it has only quite occasionally been imported that 
one of the numerous Sphingid species of tropical Africa has appeared as an immigrant north of the Sahara. 
The Saturniidae show the same peculiarity. In Palaearctie North Africa there is only one Saturnid, 
of South European type, Saturnia atlantica; but south of the Sahara occur a long series of peculiar species 
and even genera. True giant forms, such as Philosamia ploetzi, Bunaea phaedusa , Nuclaurelia barcas, etc., 
impress one by their size, and the enormously long-tailed Eudaemonia by their shape; Holocerci and Ludia 
when at rest are deceptively like an inconspicuous withered-up leaf; but of all these remarkable forms, 
good fliers as many of them may be, not even one has found the way across the great desert to the north. 
Thus Ethiopian Africa has apparently preserved its special character in regard also to this universal family 
and adapted its fauna to the peculiarities of the land. The latter possesses an enormous number of all 
destructive insects, such as ants and Termites, and we may notice it as a specialty arranged means of 
protection against these destroyers that many of the Ethiopian Saturnid pupae which lie free on the ground 
have a shell of extraordinary hardness and power of resistance; thus the pupae of Gynanisa, Nudaurelia 
Antheraea tvahlbergi, etc., are virtually mail-clad. 
The Lasiocampids are well represented, especially in the south of the region and in Madagascar. 
Many of the moths of this family come from unusually large larvae, several of which are protected by 
hairs which produce inflammation. 
The Ethiopian Region is not rich in Cossidae and Hepialidae. Some imposing forms of the Xyleutes 
group and a very few species of the genera Ptychiloma, Dalaca and Phassus form no satisfactory equivalent 
for the gigantic Australian Cossids and the Hepialids Phassus giganteus of America and Piclus hydrographus 
of Australia. On the other hand the most beautiful of all the Hepialidae inhabits South Africa, as well as 
the most beautiful Gossid; the former, Leto venus, has thick rows of large silver spots in the reddish yellow 
ground of the forewing, and the Gossid (or Zeuzerid, as is usually written), Chalcidica auroguttata, is 
sprinkled over with gold-vellow dots on a blue ground. 
The smaller groups of Bombycids, not mentioned here, have so little bearing on the characterisation 
of the Ethiopian fauna that they need not be discussed here; one group, however, is worthy of mention, 
although it has only two representatives, nearly allied to one another, in the African fauna. This is the 
family of the Uraniidae, whose African species, U. croesus and ripheus, with green and gold iridescent bands, 
are perhaps the most beautiful of all known Lepidoptera. 
The Agaristidae form a transitional family to the Noctuids. Their noble colouring, their light, 
elegant flight and their pleasing form, free from all grotesque contortions, show them as one of the most 
favoured groups, and the allied genera Anaphela and Xanthospilopteryx confined to Ethiopian Africa strike 
even the non-entomologist. But in most districts of Africa the Agaristids are not common, and as they 
are also for the most part very retiring, they are not easily to be seen. . 
The Noctuids are quite as variable in Africa as in the other faunas. Specialty long periods of 
glaring sunshine and absolute lack of rain cause the small, brightly coloured day-Noctuids, allied to Heliothis 
and Acontia, to preponderate rather than Agrotis and Mamestra, more numerous in the temperate zone. 
Cat oca/a, which occurs north of the Sahara in 8 species and in the summer in myriads of individuals, is 
entirety absent in the Ethiopian Region; Ophideres and Ophiusa and the beautiful Miniodes occur in its place. 
Large dusk-flying Noctuids are not rare in places, but there is no form which approaches the gigantic 
American Thysania agrippina; at the most small specimens of Erebus odora are equalled in size by Patula 
macrops, which is not rare in India as in Africa. 
The Geometrids present as few striking characteristics in the Ethiopian Region as the Noctuids. 
Macaria and Boarmiids, the latter especially in the south, play as predominant a role as in the other regions. 
