40 GEOTE — SPECIALIZATIONS OF LEPIDOPTEROUS WING. [April 7, 



on the cross-vein. It is a mistaken view to consider these varia- 

 tions "abnormal." They have a definite end and object, and 

 show us how the changes in the venation have been slowly attained. 

 All the species we take cognizance of are seemingly in a certain 

 stage of progression, which temporarily assumes an apparent greater 

 or lesser stability as the insect and its environment are equalized. 

 In Crinopteryx familiella Spuler considers that we have a now 

 variable form in the final stages of discarding the many-branched 

 radius of the secondaries, thus showing us how the wing of Erio- 

 cephalus may have passed into that of the aculeate Tineidce. 



Conclusion. 



I have taken the present opportunity to review my publications 

 upon the neuration of the diurnals, to compare the figures again 

 with the photographs and preparations. After supplying the miss- 

 ing details in the figures of Parnassius apollo (in which the lower 

 incomplete margin of the humeral cell was omitted) and oi Hdico- 

 nius antiochus (in which the traces of the cubital cross-vein and 

 internal vein were left out), I find nothing to add or alter. The 

 method employed by me prevents errors of commission, but, owing 

 to defects in the preparations, overlooked at the time, it has hap- 

 pened that the above details were not reproduced on the stone. 



My studies were entered upon with the view of bringing our 

 classifications into a nearer correspondence with a probable phylog- 

 eny. It was unexpected that the result was to confirm the general 

 sequence of Linne and Fabricius, no less than that of the modern 

 authors, Wallace, W. H. Edwards, the Catalogue of Staudinger, at 

 least so far that we may commence with the Papilionides. Since 

 the Parnassians belong beyond question to this stem, and are more 

 specialized than the Swallowtails proper, we should begin with this 

 family. I may reply to comparisons that have been made, that no 

 results obtained in this way, as between ultimate specializations of 

 the same organ in different groups of butterflies, can affect the 

 phylogeny brought out by me. For this latter rests on the primary 

 character offered by vein '* ix," and not upon coincidences in ulti- 

 mate structure, which are not exclusive, and may well have been 

 independently reproduced upon separate phylogenetic lines. These 

 are characters of convergence, and are not properly used as an 

 index to relationship. 



A review of the general neuration shows that the hesperid wing 



