On the phenomena of variation and geographical distribution as illustrated by the Papilionidæ of the Malayan regionWallace, Alfred Russel
Science
On the phenomena of variation and geographical distribution as illustrated by the Papilionidæ of the Malayan region
Wallace, Alfred Russel
Papilionidae -- Malaysia -- Geographical distribution; Papilionidae -- Malaysia -- Variation
11. _Pammon_-group. India to Pacific and Australia.
12. _Erechtheus_-group. Celebes to Australia.
13. _Demolion_-group. India to Celebes.
14. _Erithonius_-group. Africa, India, Australia.
15. _Paradoxa_-group. India to Java (Borneo, max.).
16. _Dissimilis_-group. India to Timor (India, max.).
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.
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 Indo-Malayan
or Austro-Malayan divisions of the archipelago, which is so well marked
in the higher animals (see ‘Journal of Linnean Society,’ vol. iv. 172,
and ‘Journal of the Royal Geographical Society,’ 1863, p. 230), 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:—
_Indo-Malayan Region._
_Nox_-group.
_Coon_-group.
_Macareus_-group (nearly).
_Paradoxa_-group.
_Dissimilis_-group (nearly).
_Brookeanus_-group.
LEPTOCIRCUS (genus).
_Austro-Malayan Region._
_Priamus_-group.
_Ulysses_-group.
_Erechtheus_-group.
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 sea-beach, 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 them 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.
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