38 GROTE — SPECIALIZATIONS OF LEPIDOPTEROUS WING. [April?, 



I conclude, then, that no sufficient reason can be shown for inter- 

 rupting the sequence of what has been called the Macrolepidoptera, 

 which all alike possess vein viii, and that for a group of butterflies 

 having, on the contrary, vein '' ix," the proper place in the system 

 is by themselves at the commencement of the series. It must be 

 recollected that our phylogenies are largely suppositional, and that, 

 practically, whitever their origin, the diurnals should be kept 

 together in collections and catalogues. No gain in scientific ac- 

 curacy is attained in discarding the general lines of the Fabrician 

 sequence of 1787. The correspondences of the Papilionides do 

 not lie with the Hesperiadse, as urged by Mr. Scudder, but with 

 the Pieri-Nymphalid^e : the suspension of the chrysalis with the 

 Pierids, the neurational analogies with the Nymphalids. If these 

 are acknowledged as affinities, not as analogies, then there is also 

 no sufficient reason for changing what is practically the best 

 sequence and which has the advantage of being long accepted. It 

 is an innovation to place the Papilionides between the Blues and 

 the Skippers, and one which I show to be destitute of reason, from 

 the neuration as well as from a weighing of the value of other 

 features which appear on the surface to justify such a conclusion 

 fsee my papers in Natural Science for January and February, '98). 

 It must, then, appear to me that no greater mistake has as yet been 

 made in classifying the butterflies than that which associates the 

 Swallowtails with the Skippers. And this is the main part of my 

 argument, that whatever relationship may be made out for the 

 Papilionides with the other butterflies, the connection of the Blues 

 and the Skippers should not be disturbed by the Swallowtails being 

 thrust in between them. 



An unwarranted use of the terms *' superficial " and '' structural " 

 has been repeatedly made in lepidopterological writings, sometimes 

 for the mere purpose of invidious comparison. The assumed 

 antithesis, as between classes of external characters, is entirely 

 illusory. Uncritical studies of the shape of the genital pieces, as 

 of any other of the appendages, lead to common and unsatisfactory 

 results. I conclude that a phylogenetic classification cannot be 

 reached until primary and secondary features are distinguished and 

 the characters indicating relationship separated from those of 

 convergence. 



The neurational characters of convergence which appear in 

 certain Papilionides, and again in groups of the Nymphalids, may 



