December— Spin th. cataphanes, var. ligaminosa, Ev., Ceratophora
radiosella, m., and Lith. comparella, Z.
The present list contains a large number of new forms. I do
not consider it advisable to reckon them as peculiar to Turkistan, as,
probably, they are distributed throughout the neighbouring countries.
But the fauna of these conterminous countries is little known, a circumstance
which renders difficult the formation of an opinion concerning
the degree of completeness of the collections made in Turkistan, and as
to what species may yet be found there.
The territories adjacent to Turkistan are almost entirely uninvestigated
: only a few species from Kopal and Sungaria are known.
Several of them are mentioned in a forthcoming work,4 and to some Lepi-
doptera, of which Eversmann speaks, he assigns a very indefinite habitat,
namely, the Kirghese Stepper/ To a certain degree Mangyshlak and
Krasnovodsk furnish an exception. In June, 1870. A. Becker, of Sarepta,
found in Mangyshlak 16 species, which are enumerated in the Bulletin
de la Société Impériale des Naturalistes de Moscou, part I., 1870,
p. 126. On account of its small extent, the collection of Becker was
not, in any way, characteristic of the fauna of Mangyshlak, and the
majority of Mangyshlak species appeared in Fedchenko’ s collection.
Only I of these species are not yet found in Russian Turkistan, 4 of
which, it may almost positively be said, ought to be met with there,
viz. :—Naclia punctata, var. fam ula, Frr., Lithosia unita, Hb.,
Orgyia dubia, Tausch., and Th.alpoch.ares respersa, Hb. As regards
the fifth species,— Phorodesma (Ligia, secundum Becker)plusiaria, B.,
—its being found in Mangyshlak may bp doubted, and it may be
taken for granted that there is an error in the locality assigned. In
1872, Mr. G. Christoph collected at Krasnovodsk, but I only saw a few
of his insects and heard of others. Almost without exception, the
whole of them are met with in Russian Turkistan; the only species
wanting are :—Lycaena Christophi, Stgr. in litt., Psyche quadrangu-
laris, Chr., Axiopena maura, Eichw., Agrotis prenuba, L., and
Heliothis nubigera, H.S., but, in my opinion, there should be no
doubt as to the finding of these latter in the Syr-daria province.
I think it sufficient here to compare only the diurnal Lepidoptera of the
Turkistan fauna with the number of species known on the whole European
territory, and in certain of the better investigated countries of the
Mediterranean province, since, of all divisions of Lepidoptera, Rhopalo-
cera is the one which has been best investigated, both in European
territory and Russian Turkistan, where they constitute 21% (76 species)
of all the species there known.
The diumal Lepidoptera of Europe [and the adjoining countries],
according to the latest catalogue of Dr. O. Staudinger, number in
all 456 species, consequently the 76 species known in Turkistan constitute
17%.
In Greece, according to O. Staudinger, 5* 130 species, or about
28J%, are met with; in Amasia and Tokat, according to J. Lederer
and J. Mann, 6 162 species, or about 36% ; in Brassa with Olympus,
4 M e n t i o n i s n o t m a d e o f t h e f o l l o w i n g w h i c h w e r e t a k e n i n S u n g a r i a , a n d
d e s c r i b e d b y E v e r s m a n n - i n t h e B ulletin de Moscou f o r 1 8 4 3 , 1 8 4 6 , 1 8 4 8 , a n d
r 85r : — ParnassiusDelphius,P. Clarius.LycaenaPheretiades, CocnonymphaSunbecca,
Callimorpha Menetriesii, Epione acuminaria, Gnophos stemmataria, Songarica
mollicularia, a n d Cidaria fila ria . C e r t a i n o f t h e s e w i l l . p r o b a b l y b e f o u n d , a t a
f u t u r e d a t e , i n R u s s i a n T u r k i s t a n .
* F o r n o t e s 5 — 1 1 see o r i g i n a l , p . 3 ( i n G e r m a n a n d F r e n c h ) .
according to J. Mann, 7 133 species, or about 29%; in Anatolia,
according to J. Lederer, 8 72 species, or about 15^% - n Syria, also
according to J. Lederer,9 82 species, or about 18% ; in Trans-Baikal,
Amur, and Sea-coast provinces, according to O. Bremer and E.
Men6tries, 10 are numbered 157 species, or about 35%; and finally, in
the Altai, according to the list of J. Lederer,11 121 species, constituting
about 27%, are found. Taking the average of species for each of these
countries at 27%, we see that the 17% of diurnal Lepidoptera in Turkistan
only constitutes about § of the normal figure. From this we may conclude
with great probability that the number of diurnal Lepidoptera
inhabiting Turkistan should exceed 120.
With regard to nocturnal Lepidoptera or moths, it is decidedly impossible,
even approximately, to form any trustworthy opinion, as of
2,397 European Heterocera known to. me, 169 species are found in
Turkistan, and of 3,213 Microlepidoptera only 122 species ; besides, the
above quoted seven localities with regard to Heterocera are too little
investigated to permit of the formation of any opinion whatever.
Concerning the character of the fauna of Turkistan Lepidoptera, the
collections made there permit some deductions, but only very general
ones, to be drawn. In all there are known 367 species in Turkistan.
Of these, 92, or 25%, constitute new species, and 14, or 4%; appear there
in new forms, some of which will in the future probably be regarded as
independent species, and 25 species, according to present information,
must with the new species be recognized as peculiar to the fauna of
Turkistan.
The remaining 233 species, or about 64% (29 of them appear new to
the Lepidoptera of the Russian Empire), represent forms already known
in other parts of Europe and Russia. As the percentage of general
European species is very great, and as the new and chiefly characteristic
species do not, from their facies, belong to exotic forms, we may
suppose that the fauna of Turkistan belongs to the so-called “ fauna
of the European territory.” According to the calculation of Dr. Staudinger,
the fauna of the European territory is spread over from 500,000 to
800,000 square miles, and to it (in addition to 180,000 square miles
of Europe proper) belong, the whole of N. Asia, extending southwards,
in the eastern part, as far as Manchuria, and in the west as far as the
south of Persia; Armenia and Asia Minor; Algeria and Tangiers;
Greenland,-Labrador, and certain other parts of North America. The
comprehension of such a vast' extent under a general appellation is
fully justified by the general character of the fauna of these countries,
and the great resemblance of the individual species.
The fauna of Turkistan furnishes certain new proofs of the general correctness
of thus extending the European territory, as in it are found such
species as Colias Nastes, var. cocandica, m., almost identical with a type
living in Labrador ; Limenitis Lepechini, m., similar to the Californian
L. Lorquinii, B. ; Spilosoma melanostigma, m., similar to the N.
American S. acrea, Dr. ; Thestor Eedchenkoi, m., represents the genus
known previously in the south of Spain and N. Africa; Smerinthus
Kindermanni, Ld., various species of Syntomidce, and many other
forms now known in the western part of Asia Minor.
Respecting the position that the fauna Of Turkistan should occupy
m the fauna of European territory, it may be without hesitation assigned
to the south, or so-called Mediterranean province. The 261 known
species, or 71% of the whole fauna of Turkistan, as is seen from