' ~1 /^ A R Y , I 



i<^ 



VOL. XXI. LONDON, MAY, 1889. No. 5. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE PREPARATORY STAGES OF ARGE 

 GALATHEA, Linn., WITH NOTES ON CERTAIN SATYRIN^. 



BY W. H. EDWARDS, COALBURGH, W. VA. 

 (Continued from page 71.) 



How then can Mr. Scudder claim that this feeble relic of the tertiaries, 

 stranded, as he tells us, on the loftiest peaks at east and west at the close 

 of the glacial period, unchanged in all respects since that, its imago show- 

 ing itself but once in two years, the individual living at most but a few 

 days, always in tribulation and peril, saved only from extinction by its 

 acquired habits of dropping into a crevice, or of clinging to the rocks by 

 the feet, its wings of scarcely any use whatever, but a constant source of 

 danger — that this miserable creature stands at the head of its genus, its 

 sub-family, its family, of the American fauna, and in fact of the world, 

 the ideal butterfly !* 



The mere statement of the proposition that such a tribe, creepers 

 along the ground, avoiding sun-light, allied to the moths at every stage, 

 often with habit of moths rather than butterflies, have high rank in the 

 order, and that the weakest member of the tribe — the one which has 

 suffered most by isolation and privation — is the highest of all, carries its 

 own refutation. 



When a process of reasoning leads to an absurd conclusion, there is 

 a flaw somewhere. The facts may be mistaken, or wrongly presented, 

 and, in either case, the inferences attempted to be drawn from them may 

 be without justification. 



Mr. Scudder is compelled to allow, that in three stages out of four, the 

 Satyrinae are nearer the Hesperidae and the moths than to other butter- 



* We have the expression " the highest butterflies," meaning the Satyrinse, repeat- 

 ed endlessly, sometimes twice on one page, when "Satyrinae" would answer every 

 purpose. It seems to me the author of the work, appealing to the reason of his readers, 

 makes a mistake in thrusting his opinions before them so persistently. If the arguments 

 fail to convince, what he calls by one name, will be thought to deserve quite another. 



