3898.] GROTE — SPECIALIZATIONS OF LEPIDOPTEROUS WING. 41 



series, vein ivj, in following the lead of iv^, proves Gonophlebia 

 to be a highly specialized form. The neuration shows us that there 

 is no contradiction offered to the view that Gonophlebia is a special- 

 ized Pierid and, in order to make this still plainer, we will study 

 it a little closer. 



What gives the pattern of the veining its singularity, and affords 

 a faint reminiscence of the Pericopids, is the tendency to run apart 

 which the veins display in Gonophlebia. The veins are bent more 

 or less out of their usual course, and this is especially the case with 

 Vg on both wings. But all this effort is clearly exerted in order to 

 sustain the circular shape of the wings and keep the thin membrane 

 taut. On the secondaries the expansion of the rounded costal 

 margin has to be performed solely by the radius, in its single special- 

 ized condition, without branches. And how is this infrequent task 

 accomplished? The simple vein is bent upwards, near the middle, 

 at a nearly right angle, supporting and anastomosing with vein ii ; 

 thence again, less abruptly descending, the radius runs outwardly 

 to external margin below the apices, while vein ii itself is continued 

 to the apex of the wing. Nature wished to make a spherical wing 

 with no greater number of sustaining rods than go to support the 

 longer wings of other butterflies, or even the narrow and extended 

 wings of Leptid^a. And thus, with the same economy of material, 

 is the end attained. There arise no new veins, no complexity of 

 machinery astonishes. We have the old veins in new position, but 

 still showing the Pierine movement in specialization. 



If Gonophlebia is the pattern of the veining so transformed, it 

 is small wonder that Mr. Butler should deny and Mr. Scudder 

 question its being a butterfly. Added to this the antennae lack the 

 regulation knob, which would allow Mr. Butler to place it among 

 the '' Rhopalocera. " A puzzle to the classificators and a seduction 

 to Mr. Reuter to a waste of category, this frail butterfly has evidently 

 suffered many 'Vicissitudes of the voyage" along the road it has 

 traveled and which may not be so very far now from its ending. 



This strange butterfly is the only diurnal I have yet met with in 

 which vein ix is retained on hind wings. 



