collections made by Dr.
Templeton, Mr. E.L. Layard, and others; as well as those in the British
Museum and in the Museum of the East India Company.

"A short notice of the aspect of the Island will afford the best means
of accounting, in some degree, for its entomological Fauna: first, as it
is an island, and has a mountainous central region, the tropical
character of its productions, as in most other cases, rather diminishes,
and somewhat approaches that of higher latitudes.

"The coast-region of Ceylon, and fully one-third of its northern part,
have a much drier atmosphere than that of the rest of its surface; and
their climate and vegetation are nearly similar to those of the
Carnatic, with which this island may have been connected at no very
remote period.[1] But if, on the contrary, the land in Ceylon is
gradually rising, the difference of its Fauna from that of Central
Hindostan is less remarkable. The peninsula of the Dekkan might then be
conjectured to have been nearly or wholly separated from the central
part of Hindostan, and confined to the range of mountains along the
eastern coast; the insect-fauna of which is as yet almost unknown, but
will probably be found to have more resemblance to that of Ceylon than
to the insects of northern and western India--just as the insect-fauna
of Malaya appears more to resemble the similar productions of
Australasia than those of the more northern continent.

[Footnote 1: On the subject of this conjecture see _ante_, Vol. I. Pt.
I, ch. i. p. 7.]

"Mr. Layard's collection was partly formed in the dry northern province
of Ceylon; and among them more Hindostan insects are to be observed than
among those collected by Dr. Templeton, and found wholly in the district
between Colombo and Kandy. According to this view the faunas of the
Neilgherry Mountains, of Central Ceylon, of the peninsula of Malacca,
and of Australasia would be found to form one group;--while those of
Northern Ceylon, of the western Dekkan, and of the level parts of
Central Hindostan would form another of more recent origin. The
insect-fauna of the Carnatic is also probably similar to that of the
lowlands of Ceylon; but it is still unexplored. The regions of Hindostan
in which species have been chiefly collected, such as Bengal, Silhet,
and the Punjaub, are at the distance of from 1,300 to 1,600 miles from
Ceylon, and therefore the insects of the latter are fully as different
from those of the above regions a