( 433 ) XVII. A Preliminary List of tJto BiUterfies of Hong-Kong ; based on Observations and Captures made during the Winter and Spring Months of 1892 and 1893. By James J. Walker, R.N., F.L.S. [Read May 1st, 1895.] Although Hong-Kong has been a British Colony for more than half-a-century, its occnpation by England dating from the year 1841, it is not a little remarkable that, while a most admirable Flora of the island was published twenty years later,* scarcely anything appears to be known respecting its insect fauna, of which no general collection, so far as I am aware, has been as yet brought together. The butterflies especially, though sufficiently numerous in species and attractive to the collector, seem to have been almost entirely overlooked by those naturalists to whom we owe our present know-ledge of the fauna of south-eastern China. No doubt many collections of these insects have been made by military officers stationed at Hong-Kong, as well as by other European residents ; but of these very few, if any, have been made available for scientific treatment by finding their way into the leading museums and collec-tions at home. Mr. H. J. Elwes, in his important paper, '' The Butter-flies of Amurland, North China, and Japan " (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1881, pp. 856 et seq.), has summed up the state of our knowledge of the Rhopalocera of South China at that time. " Our knowledge of the butterflies is infinitesimal. It is extraordinary that out of the great number of Englishmen who for neai'ly a century have resided at various ports on the coast of China, not one has ever studied Lepidoptera scientifically, and no traveller has ever collected more than a few specimens in any one place, so far as I am aware. Nearly as much was known *' Bentham's " Flora Hongkongensis." London : 1861. Supple-ment by Dr. Hance, 1872. TRANS. ENT. SOC. LOND. 1895. — PART IV. (DEC.)
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