1899.] GROTE — SPECIALIZATIONS OF LEPIDOPTEROUS WIXG. 37 



defense for such an interpolation would be the common survival of 

 the cubital cross-vein, which the Parnassians have lost. This is 

 distinct in the Papilionidce, and more or less so in the Nymphalid 

 group, in the Limnadidae, Heliconiidae and Morphidce, these latter 

 appearing to be otherwise specialized Satyrids. Thus this survival 

 is shown in groups primarily differing in the presence of 'Mx" or 

 viii on fore wings. I conclude, then, it is here an independent 

 survival in unrelated groups. Nothing can show more clearly the 

 overstress that has been laid upon the generalized features of the 

 Papilionid wing than the demonstration that this residual character 

 is shared also by the bru?h-footed butterflies, with which Mr. 

 Scudder would head the sequence of the diurnals. There appears 

 to be nothing in the neuration to contradict the monophyllism of 

 the brush-footed butterflies, unless we are prepared to assume that 

 the Agapetidas and Morphidas have parted with vein '' ix " and not 

 with viii. 



The forked anal vein (viii) of primaries is absent in the Satyrids, 

 and this feature seems, outside of the sexual character of the swollen 

 veins (traces of which I meet in certain of the Nymphalidae proper) 

 and the generalized radius, to distinguish these from the Pierids. 

 But the character is repeated in other groups of the brush-footed 

 butterflies, and it seems impossible to find positive neurational 

 characters upon which the Pieri-Nymphalidae might be divided. 

 And only the general pattern or plan of the veining— /. e., the 

 more parallel neuration and equal spacing, the retention of the 

 middle median branch in position, an indisposition in the veins to 

 approach and furcate — distinguishes the wings of the Lycceni-Hes- 

 periadae from those of the Pieri-Nymphalidas. The Blues show a 

 radial specialization on a wing which is fundamentally Hesperian. 

 This points to the fact that the Lycsenidse and Hesperiadae are 

 members of a common phylogenetic branch, however remote the 

 point of divergence may lie. I assume that this branch joins the 

 main stem of the Pieri-Nymphalid butterflies, because in the Char- 

 axinae I find an approach to the separated longitudinal veins of the 

 Hesperiad^e, while vein viii of fore wings of the Whites and brush- 

 footed butterflies is repeated in the Lycaeni-Hesperid group. 

 Whether future studies in ontogeny render a presumed connection 

 of the Papilionides with the Nymphalids entertainable or not, we 

 are equally warranted, from the opposed directions of the last anal 

 vein of primaries, in classifying the diurnals as either Papilionides 

 or Hesperiades. 



