38 PROCEEDINGS OP THE ACADEMY OP 



Vegetation of a particular character being very prolific then, there 

 is ground for believing that an excess of Tineids of herbivorous 

 habits would have been better adapted to the existing condition 

 of things. 



As living Tineids, so far as I am conversant with their history, 

 only attack woollen stuffs, furs, feathers, etc., when stripped from 

 their rightful proprietors, and not when constituting their living 

 vesture, analogy would expect a similar exhibition of character 

 upon the part of their remote progenitors. The fur of dead ani- 

 mals is, however, utilized while also remaining intact. 



Many of our living larval Tineids construct cases into which the}' 

 retire and which they bear with them from place to place, when they 

 do not otherwise tunnel the leaves of their favorite food-plants. 

 There can be no impropriety in presuming the existence of similar 

 habits upon the part of their distant ancestors. The warm tem- 

 perate climate which prevailed during the Jurassic epoch, with its 

 excessive moisture and humid atmosphere, offers a weight}' argu- 

 ment in favor of cocoon, or rather case-builders. 



Lepidoptera, as a rule, are exceedingly delicate and fragile 

 beings, very liable when life is extinct to speedy decomposition. 

 Therefore, it is not to be wondered at that their remains are not 

 found in greater abundance. When we reflect that there have been 

 many alterations of level since the day when the Jurassic fauna 

 flourished, it is highly probable that many forms have irrecoverably 

 perished. But when the rock-structure of the globe is better 

 known, new forms may come to light, which will doubtless help to 

 fill up existing gaps in the chain of historical sequence. 



The presence of a Spihinx with moths that occupy so low a posi- 

 tion in the order as Tineids, is a remarkable coincidence, and would 

 seem to require a different explanation, in view of the then existing 

 aspect of affairs, than the one which I have endeavored to establish. 

 If future explorations and discoveries should fail to reveal the ex- 

 istence of lepidopterous life further back in time, or the existence 

 of intermediate forms to the Tineids and Sphinges, it is almost 

 impossible to resist the conclusion that these forms originated al- 

 most synchronously from some lower forms of articulate existence; 

 in other language, that they are branches from a common scion or 

 stock. It seems to be more in harmony with known facts to con- 

 sider the Sphinges to have been the modified descendants of some 

 pre-existent Bombycid, the latter of a Noctuid, etc., and to await 



