| General Distribution. | |||||
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| Neotropical Sub-regions. | Nearctic Sub-regions. | Palæarctic Sub-regions. | Ethiopian Sub-regions. | Oriental Sub-regions. | Australian Sub-regions. |
| 1. 2. 3. 4 | 1. 2. 3. 4 | 1. 2. 3. 4 | 1. 2. 3. 4 | 1. 2. 3. 4 | 1. 2. 3 — |
The Pieridæ are distributed almost, if not quite, as widely over the globe as the last family, and we shall group the genera in the same manner. Pieris (130 sp.) is cosmopolitan; Terias and Callidryas are found in all the four tropical regions, and as far north as Pennsylvania in the Nearctic region; Pontia, Tachyris, Eronia, and Thestias are common to the Ethiopian, Oriental, and Australian regions, the last-named, however, only extending as far as Timor; Colias is pre-eminently Palæarctic and Nearctic, with a few Ethiopian species, one Indian, two in Chili, and one in the Sandwich Islands; Anthocharis is wholly Palæarctic and Nearctic; Midea has two species Nearctic, and one in Japan; Gonepteryx is Palæarctic and Neotropical, extending into Texas; Idmais and Callosune are Ethiopian and Oriental; Thyca and Iphias are Oriental and Australian; Meganostoma is Nearctic and Neotropical; Nathalis and Kricogonia are Neotropical, ranging into Florida, Texas, and Colorado.
The peculiar genera are pretty equally distributed. The Neotropical region has ten, two being confined to Chili; Euterpe and Leptalis are the most remarkable, the latter containing a number of forms mimicking the Heliconidæ and Danaidæ. The Oriental region has two, Prioneris and Dercas, the Australian one, Elodina; the Ethiopian two, Teracolus and Pseudopontia; the Palæarctic two, Leucophasia and Zegris; the Nearctic one, Neophasia.
Family 15.—PAPILIONIDÆ. (13 Genera, 455 Species.)
| General Distribution. | |||||
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| Neotropical Sub-regions. | Nearctic Sub-regions. | Palæarctic Sub-regions. | Ethiopian Sub-regions. | Oriental Sub-regions. | Australian Sub-regions. |
| 1. 2. 3. 4 | 1. 2. 3. 4 | 1. 2. 3. 4 | 1. 2. 3. 4 | 1. 2. 3. 4 | 1. 2. 3. 4 |
The Papilionidæ, comprising many of the noblest and richest-coloured butterflies, and long placed at the head of the group, are almost as universally distributed as the Pieridæ, but they do not extend to so many remote islands nor so far into the Arctic and Antarctic regions. Nine-tenths of the species belong to the genus Papilio, and these are especially abundant in tropical regions, although species occur in every region and every sub-region. Well-marked sub-divisions of this large genus are characteristic of each great region—as the "Æneas" group in the Neotropical, the "Paris" group in the Oriental, the "Ægeus" group in the Australian, the "Zenobius" group in the Ethiopian, and many others. The few species of the Palæarctic region belong, on the other hand, to a group of universal distribution, and the Nearctic has a good number of species allied to Neotropical forms.
The other genera have mostly a very restricted range. Parnassius is an Alpine genus, confined to the Palæarctic and Nearctic regions. The Palæarctic region further possesses 5 peculiar genera—Mesapia, Hypermnestra, Doritis, Sericinus, and Thais; the Oriental has 4, Calinaga, Teinopalpus, Bhutanitis, and Leptocircus, the latter going as far as Celebes; the Australian has 1, Eurycus; and the Neotropical 1, Euryades, confined to the Chilian sub-region. The Ethiopian and the Nearctic regions have no peculiar genera.
Family 16.—HESPERIDÆ. (52 Genera (?), 1,200 Species.)
| General Distribution. | |||||
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| Neotropical Sub-regions. | Nearctic Sub-regions. | Palæarctic Sub-regions. | Ethiopian Sub-regions. | Oriental Sub-regions. | Australian Sub-regions. |
| 1. 2. 3. 4 | 1. 2. 3. 4 | 1. 2. 3. 4 | 1. 2. 3. 4 | 1. 2. 3. 4 | 1. 2. 3. 4 |
The Hesperidæ, or Skippers, are an immense group of mostly small obscurely coloured butterflies, universally distributed, and of which hosts of species still remain to be discovered and described. As the grouping of these into genera is not yet satisfactorily accomplished, only the more extensive and best known groups will be here noticed. Pamphila and Hesperia are universally distributed; Nisoniades seems to be only absent from the Australian region. The Neotropical region is pre-eminently rich in Hesperidæ, 33 genera being found there, of which 20 are peculiar to it; the Australian region has 12 genera, only 1 (Euschemon) being peculiar; the Oriental has 18, with 3 peculiar; the Ethiopian, 13, with 3 peculiar; the Palæarctic 6, with 1 (Erynnis) almost peculiar, a species occurring in Mexico; the Nearctic 9, with none peculiar, 4 being found also in the Neotropical region, 2 in the Palæarctic, and the rest being of wide distribution. Many new genera have, however, been recently described in the United States, but it is impossible yet to determine how many, if any, of these are peculiar. More than 100 species of the family are included in Mr. Edwards' "Synopsis of North American Butterflies,"—a very large number considering that Europe possesses only about 30.