THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 89 



more or less completely, till an " aristocratic " perfection was reached 

 in the Satyrince. " The Hesperidse have epiphyses ; the Papilioninse the 

 same ; in the closely allied sub-family, Pierinif, the epiphyses disappear." 

  — But. N. E., 73. " There is the series, leading frojn the Hesperidcz in a 

 direct and unbroken course through the Papilionin^, Pierinae, Lycseninae, 

 Lemoniinse to the Nymphalidce, and culminating in the Satyrinas " p. 74. 

 That can mean nothing else than a sort of fishing pole style of evolution, 

 in which every joint proceeds from and was inclosed in a preceding one. 

 That involves greater difficulty, even than the other plan. The big 

 Papilio is to come out of the little Hesperian, the tiny Lycsena from the big 

 Papilio, the robust and often great Nymphalid from the tiny Lycgenid, and 

 the series is to culminate in a weakling Satyrid, aristocratic, if at all, only 

 in the sense of being effete, exhausted, " petered out." 



Mr. Scudder insists strongly on the two evident series — one, of the 

 style of pupating ; the other, of the condition of the legs. But, what if 

 these series are imaginary? The pupation begins and ends with the 

 moths, and is in a circle, as I have shown, and, therefore, is not in a 

 series. Let us see about legs ; first, six good legs ; next, slight atrophy 

 in the fore-legs of one sex ; then a little farther atrophy ; next, six good 

 legs in the Libytheinje ; then complete atrophy in both sexes, and at last 

 extreme atrophy. Using the diagram before referred to, in which " the 

 height which each branch attains, indicates the relative perfection " of 

 the several groups, the whole length of the stem being 6.5 inches ; we 

 find the Papilionidie at 2 inches, the Lycaenidj<? at 3, the Erycinida' at 

 3.25 ; the Libytheina?, having six legs, must be rated at 2 ; the 

 Nymphalinai 4.25 ; the Satyrin^*? 6.5. This will then run 2, 3, 3.25, 2, 

 4.25, 6.5. The mathematical name for this sort of series I do not find, 

 but I think it is what is called the illusive — such stuff as dreams are made 

 of Not substantial enough to base an argument on ! 



Another thing one would like to have an explanation of If there ever 

 did arise a tendency towards deformity, and the deformity was a develop- 

 ment, why, in the Lycsenidfe, it halted at a slight degree, and left all the 

 species of this great family, divided into hundreds of genera, in exactly 

 the same condition ? Why it advanced a bit farther in the Erycinidje 

 and halted, and why both these families have halted for these 

 myriads of years ? Why they are not as perfect, in all respects, as 

 the Nymphalidae, with but four good legs in both sexes — four legs being 



