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richness is partly real and partly apparent. The breaking up of a district into small isolated portions, as in an archipelago, seems highly favourable to the segregation and perpetuation of local peculiarities in certain groups; so that a species which on a continent might have a wide range, and whose local forms, if any, would be so connected together that it would be impossible to separate them, may become by isolation. reduced to a number of such clearly defined and constant forms that we are obliged to count them as species. From this point of view, therefore, the greater proportionate number of Malayan species may be considered as apparent only. Its true superiority is shown, on the other hand, by the possession of three genera and twenty groups of Papilionidæ against a single genus and eight groups in South America, and also by the much greater average size of the Malayan species. In most other families, however, the reverse is the case, the South American Nymphalidæ, Satyridæ, and Erycinidæ far surpassing those of the East in number, variety, and beauty.

The following list, exhibiting the range and distribution of each group, will enable us to study more easily their internal and external relations.

Range of the Groups of Malayan Papilionida. Ornithoptera.

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2. Pompeus-group. Himalayas to New
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3. Brookeana-group. Sumatra and Borneo... 1

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Papilio.

4. Nox-group. North India, Java, and Philip

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7. Ulysses-group.

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Celebes to New Caledonia 4

8. Peranthus group. India to Timor and
Moluccas (India, maximum)

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9. Memnon-group. India to Timor and Mo-
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10. Helenus-group. Africa and India to New
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11. Pammon-group. India to Pacific and Aus

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12. Erectheus-group. Celebes to Australia
13. Demolion-group. India to Celebes
14. Erithonius-group. Africa, India, Australia
India to Java (Borneo,

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17. Macareus-group. India to New Guinea 18. Antiphates-group. Widely distributed 19. Eurypylus-group. India to Australia Leptocircus.

20 Leptocircus-group. India to Celebes

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This Table shows the great affinity of the Malayan with the Indian Papilionidæ, only three out of the nineteen groups ranging beyond, into Africa, Europe, or America. The limitation of groups to the IndoMalayan or Austro-Malayan divisions of the archipelago, which is so well marked in the higher animals, is much less conspicuous in insects, but is shown in some degree by the Papilionidæ. The following groups

are either almost or entirely restricted to one portion of the archipelago :

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The remaining groups, which range over the whole archipelago, are, in many cases, insects of very powerful flight, or they frequent open places and the seabeach, and are thus more likely to get blown from island to island. The fact that three such characteristic groups as those of Priamus, Ulysses, and Erechtheus are strictly limited to the Australian region of the archipelago, while five other groups are with equal strictness confined to the Indian region, is a strong corroboration of that division which has been founded almost entirely on the distribution of Mammalia and Birds.

If the various Malayan islands have undergone recent changes of level, and if any of thein have been more closely united within the period of existing species than they are now, we may expect to find indications of such changes in community of species between islands now widely separated; while those islands which have long remained isolated would have had time to acquire peculiar forms by a slow and natural process of modification.

An examination of the relations of the species of the adjacent islands, will thus enable us to correct opinions formed from a mere consideration of their relative positions. For example, looking at a map of the archipelago, it is almost impossible to avoid the idea that Java and Sumatra have been recently united; their present proximity is so great, and they have such an obvious resemblance in their volcanic structure. Yet there can be little doubt that this opinion. is erroneous, and that Sumatra has had a more recent and more intimate connexion with Borneo than it has had with Java. This is strikingly shown by the mammals of these islands-very few of the species of Java and Sumatra being identical, while a considerable number are common to Sumatra and Borneo. The birds show a somewhat similar relationship; and we shall find that the distribution of the Papilionidæ tells exactly the same tale. Thus :

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showing that both Sumatra and Java have a much closer relationship to Borneo than they have to each other—a most singular and interesting result, when we consider the wide separation of Borneo from them both, and its very different structure. The evidence furnished by a single group of insects would have had

but little weight on a point of such magnitude if standing alone; but coming as it does to confirm deductions drawn from whole classes of the higher animals, it must be admitted to have considerable value.

We may determine in a similar manner the relations of the different Papuan Islands to New Guinea. Of thirteen species of Papilionidæ obtained in the Aru Islands, six were also found in New Guinea, and seven not. Of nine species obtained at Waigiou, six were New Guinea, and three not. The five species found at Mysol were all New Guinea species. Mysol, therefore, has closer relations to New Guinea than the other islands; and this is corroborated by the distribution of the birds, of which I will only now give one instance. The Paradise Bird found in Mysol is the common New Guinea species, while the Aru Islands and Waigiou have each a species peculiar to themselves.

The large island of Borneo, which contains more species of Papilionidæ than any other in the archipelago, has nevertheless only three peculiar to itself; and it is quite possible, and even probable, that one of these may be found in Sumatra or Java. The lastnamed island has also three species peculiar to it; Sumatra has not one, and the peninsula of Malacca only two. The identity of species is even greater than in birds or in most other groups of insects, and points very strongly to a recent connexion of the whole with each other and the continent.

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