44 GROTE — SPECIALIZATIOXS OF LEPIDOPTEROUS \VIXG. [April?, 



cialization. The branches do not move backwards and forwards, 

 but always tend to remove outwardly. None of these movements 

 affect vein *'ix." This remains stationary in the Papilionides, 

 undisturbed by the changes in the radial branches, or of those 

 marking the breaking up of the " median " system of the wing, as 

 designated by Comstock. 



For it does not affect the conclusions I have reached whether 

 Comstock's nomenclature be ultimately adopted or not, while I 

 favor its adoption. Whether the costal thickening be homologous 

 with the veins, whether what I have called vein ii should not be 

 rather called after Haase and Spuler vein i, or even whether Com- 

 stock's " radius " should be called the subcostal — and the " media," 

 the radius — all these are questions of names and homologies with 

 which my results are not primarily concerned. Whatever names 

 are adopted, I believe to have shown that specializations are evi- 

 denced by the absorption of the veins, by the reduction of the 

 radial (Comstock) branches and their progression along the main 

 vein, by the opening of the discal cell and the fusion of the 

 branches of the media (Comstock) with the radial or cubital 

 systems of the wing. And whether we call the last, downwardly 

 curved vein of the primaries of the Papilionides *'anal," ''inter- 

 nal," or '* submedian," or number it, does in no way affect the 

 argument, deducible from its presence, that the group possessing it 

 occupies an exclusive position. I have further relieved the Papilio- 

 nides from the vague charge of generalization, by showing that 

 their residual characters are shared by the brush-footed butterflies, 

 and that in the presence of but one internal vein to the secondaries 

 they possess a character of specialization raising them above all 

 the rest. Not the Swallowtails, but the Blues, are, from the neura- 

 tion, the allies of the Skippers, and, having thus endeavored to 

 divorce the Papilionides from their enforced association with the 

 Hesperiadae, I conclude that their fittest place is *' at the head " 

 of our linear systems and collections. 



Finally {Natural Science, Feb., '98) I have ventured to suggest 

 that certain changes in color run, in a general way, parallel with 

 the specializations of the neuration. The white pigment colors 

 appear to mark advanced forms. This is illustrated, in the Papilio- 

 nides, by the fact that the Parnassiid?e, as a whole more specialized 

 than the Papilionidae, are also paler, more white in general hue. 

 The most generalized group of the latter, Ornithcpte^-a, contains 

 species of the darkest, most intense coloration. 



