The Malay archipelago : the land of the orang-utan ... - Wallace Online

—214 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap.difference is as striking as anything can be. In the family ofthe Pieridte, or white butterflies, the difference is not quite sogreat, owing perhai^s to the more wandering habits of the group ;but it is still very remarkable. Out of 30 species inhabitingCelebes, 19 are peculiar, while Java (from which more speciesare known than from Sumatra or Borneo), out of 37 species hasonly 13 peculiar. The Danaidse are large, but weak-flyingbutterflies, ^vliich frequent forests and gardens, and are plainlybut often "\'ery richly coloured. Of these my own collectioncontains 16 species from Celebes and 15 from Borneo ; butwhereas no less than 14 are confined to the former island, onlytwo are peculiar to the latter. The Nymphalidse are a veryextensive group, of generally strong-winged and very brightcolouredbutterflies, very abundant in the tropics, and representedin our own country by our Fritillaries, our Vanessas,and our Purple-emperor. Some months ago I drew up a list ofthe Eastern species of this group, including all the new onesdiscovered by myself, and arrived at the following comparativeresults :species of Nyn^phaUd.. ^P^f^^lS'^^ of pfS^^/ecies.Java 70 23 33Borneo .... 52 15 . . • .... 29Celebes .... 48 35 73The ColeoiDtera are so extensive that few of the grouj^s haveyet been carefully worked out. I will therefore refer to oneonly, whicli I have myself recently studied—the Cetoniadfe orRose-chafers,—a group of beetles which, owing to their extremebeauty, have been much souglit after. From Java 37 sjDecies ofthese insects ai-e known, and from Celebes only 30 yet only13, or 35 per cent., are peculiar to the former island,;and 19, or63 per cent., to the latter.The result of these comparisons is, that although Celebes is asingle large island with only a few smaller ones closely groupedaround it, we must really consider it as forming one of thegreat divisions of the Arcliipelago, equal in i-ank and imjDoi'tanceto the whole of the ]\Ioluccan or Philippine groups, to thePajraan islands, or to the Indo-Malay islands (Java, Sumatra,Borneo, and the Malay peninsula). Taking those families ofinsects and birds which are best known, the following tableshows the comparison of Celebes with the other groups ofislands :PAPILIONID.E ANDHAWKS, PARROTS, ANDPIEBIDiE.PIGEONS.Percent, of peculiarPercent, of peculiarSpecies.Species.Iiido-Maliiy region 56 54Philippine group 66 73Celebes 69 60Moluccan group 52 62Timor group 42 47Papuan group 64 47