For Insects, excellent materials are furnished, in the Catalogue of Mr. Kirby for Butterflies and in that of Drs. Gemminger and Harold for Coleoptera. I have also made use of some recently published memoirs on the Insects of Japan and St. Helena, and a few other recent works; and have, I believe, elaborated a more extensive series of facts to illustrate the distribution of insects, than has been made use of by any previous writer. Several discussions on the bearing of the facts of insect distribution, will also be found under the several Regions, in the preceding part of this work.
Terrestrial Mollusca form a group, as to the treatment of which I have most misgivings; owing to my almost entire ignorance of Malacology, and the great changes recently made in the classification of shells. There is also much uncertainty as to genera and sub-genera, which is very puzzling to one who merely wishes to get at general results. Finding it impossible to incorporate the new matter with the old, or to harmonise the different classifications of modern conchologists, I thought it better to confine myself to the standard works of Martens and Pfeiffer, with such additions of new species as I could make without fear of going far wrong. In some cases I have made use of recent monographs—especially on the shells of Europe, North America, the West Indian Islands, and the Sandwich Islands; and have, I venture to hope, not fallen into much error in the general conclusions at which I have arrived.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE FAMILIES AND GENERA OF MAMMALIA.
Order I.—PRIMATES.
Family 1.—SIMIIDÆ. (4 Genera, 12 Species).
| General Distribution. | |||||
 | |||||
| Neotropical Sub-regions. | Nearctic Sub-regions. | Palæarctic Sub-regions. | Ethiopian Sub-regions. | Oriental Sub-regions. | Australian Sub-regions. |
| — — — — | — — — — | — — — — | — 2 — — | — — 3. 4 | — — — — |
The Simiidæ, or Anthropoid Apes, comprehend those forms of the monkey-tribe which, in general organization, approach nearest to man. They inhabit the tropics of the Old World, and are most abundant near the equator; but they are limited to certain districts, being quite unknown in eastern and southern Africa, and the whole peninsula of Hindostan.
The genus Troglodytes (or Mimetes, as it is sometimes named) comprehends the chimpanzee and gorilla. It is confined to the West African sub-region, being found on the coast about 12° North and South of the equator, from the Gambia to Benguela, and as far inland as the great equatorial forests extend. There are perhaps other species of chimpanzee; since Livingstone met with what he supposed to be a new species in the forest region west of Lake Tanganyika, while Dr. Schweinfurth found one in the country beyond the western watershed of the Nile. The gorilla is confined within narrower limits on and near the equator.
We have to pass over more than 70° of longitude before we again meet with Anthropoid Apes, in the northern part of Sumatra—where a specimen of the orang-utan (Simia satyrus) now in the Calcutta Museum, was obtained by Dr. Abel, and described by him in the Asiatic Researches, vol. xv.—and in Borneo, from which latter island almost all the specimens in European museums have been derived. There are supposed to be two species of Simia in Borneo, a larger and a smaller; but their distinctness is not admitted by all naturalists. Both appear to be confined to the swampy forests near the north, west, and south coasts.