Mr. Edward Doubleday's Remarks on the Genus Argynnis. 179 



M. Lefebvre has pointed out that the nervules may be divided into superior 

 and inferior, according to their position above or below a fold generally visible 

 in the wings of Lepidoptera, to which he gives the name oipli ceilulmre. T<> 

 the nervules he proposes to give the names of first inferior, first superior, &c, 

 choosing this fold as his starting-point for numbering them. 



In the Diurnal Lepidoptera he gives the names of costal and subcostal net - 

 vures to the upper ones ; of median, submedian and internal to the lower MMf. 

 The costal nervure admits of no doubt as to its limits, but it has been often a 

 matter of doubt to what nervure his first and second superior nervule oagbl 

 to be referred, as sometimes they seem to belong to the subcostal, sometime* 

 to the median. This point M. Lefebvre decides by giving them to the sub- 

 costal, because he considers them to be always above the cellular fold. Ib- 

 views the subcostal as generally emitting four nervules, of which either the 

 second or third is often, if not always, branched. 



In the Heterocera he finds "quelques nervules qui nont pu etre consign, 

 These chiefly depend on a central nervure, which he calls the diseoidal. which 

 is sometimes above, sometimes below, the cellular fold. 



Such is M. Lefebvre's theory of the wing. After a long examinat.on of 

 the wings of Lepidoptera, from PapiUo to the last of the TtnM*, I have 

 arrived at a somewhat different conclusion, in which I have been confirmed 

 by a hasty glance over other orders. I should not speak so confidently 

 of the result of my labours, had I not submitted my observations to un- 

 friend Mr. Newport, who entirely coincided with my conclusions; and t u. 

 having the sanction of our best physiological and anatomica «-*£ 

 I cannot be accused of presumption in differing from all those who ban 



PI "^e^ which I would propound is this : that the normal sU-ucture of 

 the wings in Insects is, to have two distinct sets of a,™ »"£^£ 

 three belonging to the anterior half of **£*£^ 

 in those species in which ^J^^ 

 these nervures are all fully developed, and all subs rve to 

 that in descending from these we first find some -£""- ~US 

 but still subserving to functions then ecommg ^ ^ * fc 

 at last disappearing altogether ; and that this giao 



3 R 



VOL. XIX. 



