THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 185 



principal results in the specialization of the lepidopterous wing (1896- 

 1900) and claims that by applying these tests in connection with 

 the zoological principle of convergence (previously very generally 

 neglected by writers on the Lepidoptera) he has been able to give 

 a clearer picture of the development of the butterflies and a firmer, 

 more natural classification than any offered by others. The preface to 

 the new Palearctic Catalogue, by Staudinger and Rebel, recognizes this 

 fact, saying that " for the retention of the Papilionids at the beginning of 

 the Rhopalocera, and for the arrangement of this group altogether, 

 Grote's recent phylogenetic studies are authoritative " (1. c, p. X.). By 

 showing from his wing-studies, a parallelism in development of the two 

 main lines he separates in the butterflies, the author believes he has 

 terminated the controversy as to whether the Papilionids or Nymphalids 

 are " highest." In demonstrating that the Papilionides are a closed, the 

 Hesperiades an open, group to the moths, the sequences adopted among 

 others by Hiibner, H.-S., Meyrick, Hampson, Scudder, Reuter and the 

 Philadelphia List* are invalidated. We were, indeed, "familiar," as 

 recently stated in print, with the commencement by Papilio in catalogues, 

 as well as in works of Linne, Fabricius, Boisduval, W. H. Edwards, etc., 

 but we were not previously " familiar " with its proper reason, which it is 

 the aim of science to expose. It will be more correct, however, in 

 future to inaugurate the Papilionid series with Parnassius, this showing 

 the most specialized structure. The Papilionid forms which mimic 

 Nymphalids, and they are many, are younger than the forms they copy. 



The author has shown that in the Pieri-Nymphalid stem, the Pierids 

 are the ascending and neurationally more advanced group, while in the 

 Lycaeni-Hesperids, belonging to the same main line, the Blues take up 

 the corresponding position. A synthetic type has been detected by the 

 author in Nemeobius, proving the identity of the line itself. In the first 

 main line, that of the Papilionides, the Parnassians are the more 

 advanced and presumably the more modern group, while Omithoptera, 

 contrary to received opinion, has proved to be the more generalized form 

 (cf. Proc. Am. Phil. Soc, Oct., 1899). ^' ie present paper under review 

 elucidates some discrepancies in nomenclature between the new Catalogue 

 and the final results of the author on the classification of the butterflies as 



""Dr. Skinner has placed the Nymphalids at the head of the Rhopalocera, and, in 

 my opinion, correctly so." — Ed. Phil. Check List. The list commences with the 

 Limnads, which are generalized forms, of which fact neither Dr. Skinner or the editor 

 seem to have been aware. 



