1898] CLASSIFICATION OF THE DAY BUTTERFLIES 19 



much silk and make complicated cocouiis. Mr Scudder regards as 

 a logical sequence the class of facts olfered by Hesperia, making a 

 ' shroud ' within the cocoon, by Pier is, dispensing with the cocoon, 

 by Nymplialis, hanging only by the tail and losing the ' shroud,' and 

 rinally b}^ Ocneis', losing all attachment and transforming almost 

 nakedly among the surroundings of its bleak liome. But only on 

 paper does this series ligure as a scheme of progression. The 

 isolated occurrences are brought artificially into connection by Mr 

 Scudder as a basis for his system. The separate and recurring 

 features of adaptation are not phylogenetically related. Nor do the 

 specialisations of the butterfly keep pace with this imaginary series. 

 Pieris has a more specialised neurational pattern than Nym]}halis, 

 and Nymphalis than Oencis. As to the spinning, what evidence we 

 have rather points to a reversing of Mr Scudder's sequence, since the 

 more complicated the pupal envelope, the more specialised the butter- 

 fly appears often to be. The Succinct!, as a phylogenetic group, has 

 no reality behind it, because it is composed of butterflies specialised 

 upon different primary patterns of wing structure. So that the ele- 

 ments out of which it is made up are in reality foreign to each other, 

 and are only brought together upon a character which has been evi- 

 dently separately evolved, the common origin of which is contradicted 

 by the disparate structure of the ' Blues,' 'Whites,' and ' Swallowtails.' 

 Let us observe the way these schemes arise and are perpetuated. 

 Xo sooner had Boisduval noted the differences in the manner of 

 attaching the chrysalis, than he made a system out of the several 

 modes, and invented Latin names for the resulting categories. M. 

 le Dr Boisduval (alas ! that I write in the past tense) was honhommc, 

 well satisfied with himself and the world, and, after launching his 

 idea in its scientific dress, troubled himself not at all with its corre- 

 spondence, or want of correspondence, with the entire facts it was 

 designed to cover. It was as if the attractive and careless gaiety of 

 French genius had presided over the fabrication of a system so mani- 

 festly decollete. The net of Boisduval's classification is, however, suffi- 

 cient to hold Mr Scudder, although the butterflies themselves may 

 escape througli its meshes. And Mr Scudder, surveying the Lepidoptera 

 through its medium, supplies us plentifully with reasons why such a 

 net should be the one thing needful to interpose between the butter- 

 flies and our understanding of them. It is true that Boisduval's 

 system possesses both effectiveness and a certain ease which charms 

 the mind, but when it is pieced out by argumentation, when it is 

 used as a basis for further scheming, we come to see how insufficient 

 it really is. Boisduval himself belonged to the old school and pre- 

 ferred Papilio. It was therefore rather an unkind use of this 

 author's pupal system to forge thereout weapons against the ancient 

 order. But I believe they will turn in Mr Scudder's hands. 



