Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

GEOGRAPHICAL

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V13, Page 432 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

GEOGRAPHICAL See also:

DISTRIBUTION The class See also:Hexapoda has a See also:world-wide range, and so have most of its component orders. The See also:Aptera have perhaps the most extensive distribution of all animals, being found in See also:Franz Josef See also:Land and See also:South See also:Victoria Land, on the snows of Alpine glaciers, and in the depths of the most extensive caves. Most of the families and a large proportion of the genera of See also:insects are exceedingly widespread, but a study of the genera and See also:species in any of the more important families shows that faunas can be distinguished whose headquarters agree fairly with the regions that have been proposed to See also:express the distribution of the higher vertebrates. Many insects, however, can readily extend their range, and a careful study of their distribution leads us to discriminate between faunas rather than definitely to See also:map regions. A large and dominant Holoarctic See also:fauna, with numerous sub-divisions, ranges over the See also:great See also:northern continents, and is characterized by the abundance of certain families like the Carahidae and Staphylinidae among the See also:Coleoptera and the Tenthredinidae among the See also:Hymenoptera. The See also:southern territory held by this fauna is invaded by genera and species distinctly tropical. See also:Oriental types range far northwards into See also:China and See also:Japan. Ethiopian forms invade the Mediterranean See also:area. Neotropical and distinctively Sonoran insects mingle with members of the Holoarctic fauna across a wide " transition See also:zone " in See also:North See also:America. " See also:Wallace's See also:line " dividing the Indo-Malayan and Austro-Malayan sub-regions is frequently transgressed in the range of Malayan insects. The Australian fauna is See also:rich in characteristic and See also:peculiar genera, and New See also:Zealand, while possessing some remarkable insects of its own, lacks entirely several families with an almost world-wide range—for example, the Notodontidae, Lasiocampidae, and other families of See also:Lepidoptera. Interesting relationships between the Ethiopian and Oriental, the Neotropical and See also:West See also:African, the Patagonian and New Zealand faunas suggest great changes in the distribution of land and See also:water, and throw doubt on the See also:doctrine of the permanence of See also:continental areas and oceanic basins.

Holoarctic types reappear on the See also:

Andes and in South See also:Africa, and even in New Zealand. The study of the Hexapoda of oceanic islands is full of See also:interest. After the determination of a number of See also:cosmopolitan insects that may well have been artificially introduced, there remains a large proportion of 'endemic species—sometimes referable to distinct genera—which suggest a high antiquity for the truly insular faunas.

End of Article: GEOGRAPHICAL

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
GEOFFROY, JULIEN LOUIS (1743-1814) 		[next]
GEOGRAPHY (Gr. yil, earth, and ypiickty, to write)

Site © 2006 - Net Industries