Abstract
EVER since the days of the immortal Wallace, biologists have been intrigued with the distributional problems presented by the fauna of the Malay Archipelago. Probably the butterflies have proved more attractive than any other group, not only on account of their aesthetic charm, but also because the pattern and colour of their wings are susceptible to modification by isolation and climate. There is no doubt that Wallace had the butterflies in mind when he wrote in 1869: "It is certainly a wonderful and unexpected fact, that an accurate knowledge of the distribution of birds and insects should enable us to map out lands and continents which disappeared beneath the ocean long before the earliest traditions of the human race".
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CORBET, A. Palæontology without Fossils in the 'Bird-Wing' Butterflies. Nature 153, 32 (1944). https://doi.org/10.1038/153032a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/153032a0