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IV. The Developmental Characters of the Larv^ of the 



NoCTUiE AS DETERMINING THE POSITION OF THAT GrOUP. 



By Raphael Meldola, F.C.S., V.P.E.S., &c. 



[Eead March 26th, 1881.] 



I AM induced to bring a few remarks on the above subject 

 under the notice of the Chib, because we have among us a 

 large number of Lepidopterists to whom these observations 

 may be of use, from the twofold point of view of suggesting a 

 fruitful line of work for those who are in the habit of larva 

 breeding, and, on the other hand, as having some bearing on 

 the actual cabinet arrangement at present adopted by many 

 of our collectors. 



Among the many classes of biological facts that have 

 received an explanation by the publication of Darwin's 

 ' Origin of Species,' the phenomena of embryology, or the 

 development of the individual organism from the germ to a 

 state of maturity, are of the highest importance as revealing 

 in many cases the history and true affinities of groups of 

 species. In the course of its development an animal passes 

 through stages which successively represent, with more or 

 less completeness, the stages through which the species has 

 passed in arriving at its present condition. The development 

 of the individual is in this sense spoken of as the " ontogeny," 

 and the development of the race is known as the "phylogeny." 

 In accordance with the Darwinian theory all the species of 

 one group, such as a genus, have descended from a common 

 ancestor, so that all the species of such a group would be 

 expected to approach each other more closely in their 

 characters at certain stages of their ontogeny than when 

 adult, or, as Haeckel has expressed it, the ontogeny recapitu- 

 lates the phylogeny with more or less falsification, owing 

 to the necessary abbreviation of the successive stages. By 

 comparing the ontogeny of allied species and groups of 



