1898.] GROTE — SPECIALIZATIONS OF l.EPIDOPTEROUS WING. 39 



The Charaxin^. 



The Nymphalidae proper appear dichotomous. The main ascend- 

 ing branch is represented by the Argynninae, running up into the 

 NymphalincX. This branch is characterized by a short furcation of 

 iii^ with iiig, and the genera may be called the "short forks." 

 The second branch represents an earlier condition of the Nympha- 

 lids in which this furcation is more or less extended and the genera 

 may be known as '* long forks." Just as the passage from the Argyn- 

 ninae to the Nymphalinae by the continued greater absorption of ii 

 and iii of hind wings may be considered to have gradually occurred, 

 so the transformation of the ''long forks" into "short forks" is 

 inevitable by the progress of iii^ toward the outer margin of the 

 wing. But, other characters considered, the existing "long forks" 

 seem to hold together on a distinct phylogenetic line. In Anaea 

 we have an existing "long fork" which has lost its taxonomic 

 character in this direction. In Euschatzia (type morvus) we have 

 an allied Charaxid which still retains the character. Mr. ^cudder 

 having in 1875 (^- ^-^ i^^) fixed the type of Anaea as iroglodyia, 

 this action could not be properly subverted by Schatz, who subse- 

 quently made the same species the type of his genus " Pyrrhandra," 

 which name must fall. For ?norvus, more generalized than the 

 species of Anaea, I choose the generic name Euschatzia. Genera 

 like Aganisthos, Kallima and Anaea appear to represent in succession 

 Consul, Charaxes, Hypna, Prepona, typical "long forks." 



In Charaxes veins iii4 and iii^ fuse at base for a short space, 

 only about one-sixth of the length of iii3. If this short fusion 

 were absent we should have a wing agreeing so far with that of 

 Hesperia, that all the veins are separate, and no furcation, conse- 

 quent upon the absorption of iii4 by iiig, has taken place. Thus 

 in the primitive Nymphalidae, represented more nearly by the 

 Charaxinae, the veins were probably all separate. And probably 

 also in the whole group Hesperiades. In fact the hypothesis sug- 

 gests itself that the lepidopterous wing may have originally shown a 

 series of longitudinal and independent veins, connected by a system 

 of cross veins and without furcations. The disappearance of the 

 cross veins would allow of the contact of the longitudinal veins. 

 This state of affairs would in turn lead to their partial absorption 

 and consequent furcation. We may have in the Hesperiadae and 

 Tortricidae existing stages of this evolutionary change in the 

 lepidopterous wing. 



