OCR Text |
Show 1881.] OF AMURLAND, NORTH CHINA, AND JAPAN. 861 them, without attempting to study the generic affinities of the species, as this would be a work beyond my time or power. With respect to the species described by old authors, I have also as a rule accepted the verifications of previous writers, believing that when a species is well known under any name it is better to adhere to it than, for the sake of a few years' priority, to make a change, founded as such changes must often be on very doubtful identifications of descriptions. In many genera, such as Colias, Argynnis, or Lycana, the best descriptions by modern authors are of very little use in making out doubtful species; how much more, then, must it be the case when old authors are referred to. Only good figures or the examination of the type specimens can really be depended on ; and even then doubts will often crop up as to what the insects are. For instance, who could follow Mr. Butler's descriptions of species of Terias in the Trans. Ent. Soc. 1880, p. 198, without the plates? and who could form an opinion of the species of Japanese Colias from descriptions, however elaborate, of such species as C. elwesi, C. pollens, or C. suBaurata 1 With regard to the species included in Staudinger's Catalogue, I have adopted his nomenclature, as I believe that it is as nearly accurate as such a work can possibly be made, and it is generally adopted by European lepidopterists. There must be numerous errors in m y work, especially as regards the Hesperidae, inseparable from a paper which cannot be written at home with the whole of the specimens before one, but must be put together from notes often taken under circumstances unfavourable to accuracy. For these errors and for errors of judgment I beg the indulgence of those who may have occasion to refer to m y work; and I assure them, that if any of m y conclusions are faulty, as undoubtedly some must be, I have endeavoured to put together the scattered materials at my disposal with a regard for scientific truth only, and not with any wish to throw discredit on the observations of others. Finally, I must express my thanks to Mr. Godman and Dr. Staudinger for the great facilities which they have given me in examining their collections (from every point of view the two best in the world), and to Messrs. Kirby and Butler, of the British Museum, whose time I have so often taken up in a manner which I think most unreasonable, but which under the present regulations of the Museum is unavoidable. On making an analysis of the distribution of the species I get the following results, which, though they must be considered as approximate only, will, I believe, give a very fair idea of the character of the Butterflies in each country. AMURLAND. Species common to and characteristic of the Palsearctic region 85 Peculiar to the Eastern part of this regiou, but mostly of Palsearctic genera . , 80 Belonging to genera characteristic of the Indian region, or cosmopolitan in Old World .. 10 Common to Amurland and Japan, 78. 175 |