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CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE MORPHOLOGY OF 

 LEPIDOPTERA. 



Bt KARL JORDAN, Pii.D. 



WHEN studying the literature rclatiutr to the classification and ])hyloireny of 

 Lepidoptera, 1 have always been struck with the j)ancity of characters which 

 are taken as the basis of classiiicatory work in this order of insects. Outline of 

 antennae and their joints, venation of wings, form of legs, presence or absence of 

 rostrum and frenulum, are generally the only characters of the imago state taken 

 into consideration in the distinction of groups higher than species, the trnnk of the 

 body being almost entirely neglected. The reason why it is so is not far to seek. 

 Notwithstanding that a considerable number of j)apers have been written on the 

 morphology of single species or genera of Lepidoptera, we have no work dealing 

 with the morphology of the whole order in an intrinsic manner. North American 

 entomologists, the fortunate — from an entomological point of view — possessors of 

 crop-destroj-ing insects, have done a great deal in this branch of our science ; the 

 only books, indeed, where one can expect to find, and finds, valuable remarks on 

 the morphology of various families of Lepidoptera are Scndder's Butierjlies of 

 New England, often copied verbally by i)rolific old-world writers on Butterflies, and 

 various works of Packard, C'ompstock, and others. 



Every new fact in the morphology of any group of animals is of some interest ; 

 a contribution to the morj)hology of Lej)idoptera must, I think, be of special value 

 even if the new facts are few. l)nring my researches in this order of insects I have 

 often come across peculiiirities in the morphology which, by themselves, seemed to 

 me to be of great significance and worth publishing. But instead of giving stray 

 notes on the morphology of Lepidoptera, I have thought it better to work up the 

 various organs and confine my notes at one time to a single portion of the body. 

 I have, therefore, divided my contributions into several instalments, of which 1 

 present herewith the first to the reader. I shall thus avoid the paper becoming 

 so bulky that nobody will care to wade through it. Further, the separate treatment 

 of the different organs will have the great advantage (1) to the reader, that he can 

 keep the facts more easily in view and hence be able to follow my inductions 

 critically, and (2) to me, that — my researches being undertaken to gain a better 

 insight into the phyletic connection between the higher divisions of Lepidoptera 

 down to families — I can draw up a grouping of the families from each organ in- 

 dependently of the distinguishing characters furnished by other jiarts of the body, 

 and then finally, after the treatment of all jiarts of at least the e.xoskeleton, come to 

 a satisfactory result as to phylogeny and classification by a comparison of the con- 

 clusions arrived at in each instalment of these contributions. However, it must be 

 understood that, as the number of Lepiiloj)terons insects is so very large, these con- 

 tributions are not meant to be anything approaching a complete treatment of the 

 e.xoskeleton of the order ; all 1 have done is to gather from an almt)st unworked 

 gold-field those nuggets on which I stumbled — and of which some may be proved 

 by future research to be below weight, containing more rock than gold. 



