The Geographical Distribution of Animals, Volume 2: With a study of the relations of living and extinct faunas as elucidating the past changes of the Earth's surfaceWallace, Alfred Russel
Science
The Geographical Distribution of Animals, Volume 2: With a study of the relations of living and extinct faunas as elucidating the past changes of the Earth's surface
Wallace, Alfred Russel
Paleontology; Zoogeography
{43}_Lepidoptera._--The butterflies of the South Temperate Sub-region are
not numerous, only about 29 genera and 80 species being recorded. Most of
these are from Chili, which is sufficiently accounted for by the general
absence of wood on the east side of the Andes from Buenos Ayres to South
Patagonia. The families represented are as follows: Satyridæ, with 11
genera and 27 species, are the most abundant; Nymphalidæ, 2 genera and 8
species; Lemoniidæ, 1 genus, 1 species; Lycænidæ, 3 genera, 8 species;
Pieridæ, 6 genera, 14 species; Papilionidæ, 2 genera, 8 species; Hesperidæ,
4 genera, 13 species. One genus of Satyridæ (_Elina_) and 2 of Pieridæ
(_Eroessa_ and _Phulia_) are peculiar to Chili. The following are the
genera whose derivation must be traced to the north temperate
zone:--_Tetraphlybia_, _Neosatyrus_, and 3 allied genera of 1 species each,
were formerly included under _Erebia_, a northern and arctic form, yet
having a few species in South Africa; _Argyrophorus_, allied to _Æneis_, a
northern genus; _Hipparchia_, a northern genus yet having a species in
Brazil;--all Satyridæ. The Nymphalidæ are represented by the typical north
temperate genus _Argynnis_, with 7 species in Chili; _Colias_, among the
Pieridæ, is usually considered to be a northern genus, but it possesses
representatives in South Africa, the Sandwich Islands, Malabar, New
Grenada, and Peru, as well as Chili, and must rather be classed as
cosmopolitan. These form a sufficiently remarkable group of northern forms,
but they are accompanied by others of a wholly Neotropical origin. Such are
_Stibomorpha_ with 6 species, ranging through South America to Guatemala,
and _Eteona_, common to Chili and Brazil (Satyridæ); _Apodemia_ (Lemoniidæ)
confined to Tropical America and Chili. _Hesperocharis_ and _Callidryas_
(Pieridæ), both tropical; and _Thracides_ (Hesperidæ) confined to Tropical
America and Chili. Other genera are widely scattered; as, _Epinephile_
found also in Mexico and Australia; _Cupido_, widely spread in the tropics;
_Euryades_, found only in La Plata and Paraguay, allied to South American
forms of _Papilio_, to the Australian _Eurycus_, and the northern
_Parnassius_; and _Heteropterus_, scattered in Chili, North America, and
Tropical Africa. We find then, among butterflies, a large north-temperate
element, {44}intermingled in nearly equal proportions with forms derived
from Tropical America; and the varying degrees of resemblances of the
Chilian to the northern species, seems to indicate successive immigrations
at remote intervals.
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