( 511 ) XV. A Catalogue of the RJiopalocerous Lepidoptera collected in the Shan States, ivith notes on the country and climate. By Neville Manders, M.E.C.S., F.E.S., Surgeon, Army Medical Staff. [Read June 4th, 1890.] Having spent two years on active service and intermittent collecting in the unknown districts of the Cis Salween Shan States, I have thought that a short account of the country, together with a catalogue of the Lepidoptera (Ehopalocera) collected during this time, would prove not without interest to Fellows of the Society. I think the catalogue will not be without interest, for, though few new species are therein described, yet I hold that one of the most interesting entomological questions of the day is the distribution of insects ; and, as the vast tract of country lying between Assam and Sikkim, on the one hand, and Upper Tenasserim, Lower Burma, and the Malay Peninsula on the other, is practically unknown to the naturalist, any contribution towards our knowledge of the insects inhabiting that region will be of use. It may reasonably be inferred that insects occurring both in Assam and the Malay Peninsula would occur also in the intervening region, yet the proof that they do so has so far been wanting. If I were asked to deline Upper Burma, I would say that it is the plain (mostly alluvial) on either bank of the Irrawaddy, bounded on the west and north-west by the Aracan, Yomas, Lushai, and Chittagoug hill tracts, on the north-east by Yunan and the Northern Shan States, on the east by the Shan States, and south-east by Karenni. It will be seen that I limit Upper Burma to a comparatively small tract of country ; yet I think the definition a natural one. It is, in fact, an alluvial k plain surrounded by mountainous country, the former being as hot and almost as dry as the Punjab. The TRANS. ENT. SOC. LOND. 1890. — PART III. (^SEPT.) 2 M
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