24 NATURAL SCIENCE [January 



the head,' in a linear arrangement, is not especially warranted by 

 the neuration, since here the radius remains in a five-branched 

 generalised state, none of the branches having submitted to ex- 

 tinction by absorption. The Parnassians and ' Swallowtails ' 

 possess exclusive neurational features which tie them together, and 

 authorise their being regarded as a morphological group, equal in 

 value to all the other butterflies. Hence they cannot be properly 

 interpolated at any point among the latter. Nor can they be placed 

 after the Hesperians, because the looped vein VIII on the primaries 

 of the ' Skippers ' is repeated in the Sphingides and other assemblages 

 of the moths. Furthermore, the Parnassians constitute in the 

 clearest way a specialisation of the Papiliouidae, of which the steps 

 can be followed, the Zerynthianae representing an intermediate 

 stage between the Papiliouidae and the Parnassiinae. Any sequence, 

 either in letters or of an objective series of specimens, should com- 

 mence with the Parnassi-Papilionidae. The ' Blues ' are nearest 

 related to the ' Skippers," of which they form, in an analogous 

 manner, a specialisation, although here the gap in other features 

 outside of the wings is wider. The ' Whites ' and the brush-footed 

 butterflies are equally connected by a common pattern of neuration, 

 however they may separate upon the structure of the feet.^ I thus 

 return, in the main, to the sequences of Linue in 1758 and of 

 Fabricius in 1787.'- 



The drift of my discoveries and conclusions lies in the direction 

 of the rehabilitation of Painlio and a correction of the estimate 

 placed by Bates and his followers of the value of structural features 

 in the diurnals. Mr Wallace and Mr W. H. Edwards, though their 

 special arguments may be inconclusive, will have been justified after 

 a long dispute. It might, indeed, have been thought sufficient to 

 present Pcqnlio, resplendent in colour, imposing in size, perfect in 

 development, labelled in addition with a knightly name, to secure 

 recognition. Anthropomorphic as are the actual terms of the pre- 

 sentation,^ this is in so far valid, as the Parnassi-Papilionidae are 

 structurally separable from all the other butterflies. But in this 

 papilionid group it is not Papilio itself which is the most specialised, 

 but its scion, Parnassius apollo — cedant arma togatac ! 



If we follow Mr Scudder, we must commence our sequence of 



^ Mr Bates' plea for Heliconius, in itself an otherwise generalised butterfly, but one in 

 •which the forelegs are specialised to an extreme, is a logical one under Mr Scudder's 

 statement that "we must accept atrophy of these legs (!) as a conclusive mark of high 

 organisation" (I.e. 79). Some moths (jjerhaps a fact not known to Mr Scudder, e.g., 

 PaHachira hivittata, Grote) have, however, also the front feet aborted. But since Mr 

 Scudder passes Heliconius by, and prefers Oeneis, we are spared here the discussion. 



^ "Mantissa insectorum," Hafniae, Tom. ii. pp. 1-92. 



' "The Malayan Papiliouidae," etc., pp. 133-140, Am. Ed., 1871: "Owing to the 

 complete and even development of every part of their organisation, these insects best 

 represent the highest perfection to which the butterfly type has attained," etc. 



