94 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



a high grade of organization. The Quadrumana affords a very valuable 

 illustration, because, owing to their undoubted affinity with man, we feel 

 certain that they are really higher than any other order of Mammalia, 

 while at the same time they are more distinctly allied to the lowest groups 

 than many others. The case of the Papilionidas seems to me so exactly 

 parallel to this, that, while I admit all the proofs of affinity with the un- 

 doubtedly lower groups of Hesperidne and moths, I yet maintain that 

 owing to the complete and even development of every part of their 

 organization, these insects best represent the highest perfection to which 

 the butterfly type has attained, and deserve to be placed at the head in 

 any system of classification." — Nat. Selection. 139 et. seg. It is useless 

 to attempt to disparage the value of the characters cited by Mr. Wallace, 

 as Mr. Scudder does in But. N. E., 74 ; calling them "utterly insufficient," 

 or to say that they indicate low rank, or have no token of high character 

 about them. To those who also can " see clear and think straight " the 

 argument will be satisfactory. 



It accords with reason, that if there is to be, in the future, any 

 advance in the development of the butterflies, it will take place among 

 the sun-loving, many-brooded species of the sub-tropical and tropical 

 regions, where the imagos of the collective broods live fully half a year, 

 rather than among the shade-seeking species, which, according to Mr. 

 Scudder, are mostly one brooded, and numbers of which, as we have seen, 

 live but a few days, with adverse surroundings. It is among the 

 Papilionida?. that variation, and modification and polymorphism run riot, 

 as both Mr. Wallace and Mr. Bates have related. Even in our own 

 limited fauna, we have two species which are dimorphic and polymorphic. 

 But in the eastern Archipelago, every island has a modified form of certain 

 widely distributed species, and several of these species have from two to 

 four different sorts of female. In particular islands the individuals have 

 changed in shape of wing, in neuration and in color. It is out of this 

 family we may expect that species and genera will be evolved. 



I, myself, do not consider the Pieridai as part of the Papilionidie, 

 having been led to that conclusion by study of eggs, larvje and pupte of 

 many species of each family. In these stages the differences are as great 

 as can well be. On page 120, But. N. E., Mr. Scudder says of a paper 

 of mine which appeared in this magazine : " The facts brought forward 

 show that the arrangement of the genera commonly adopted in Europe is 



