^^^ AND -^^^^ 



JOURNAL OF VARIATION. 



Vol. X. No. 2. Februaby Ioth, 1898. 



On a New Classification of the Rtiopalocera. 



(lllmtrated hj Plate.) 

 By ENZIO REUTEE, Ph. D. 



At the request of the editor of this magazine, I here give a brief 

 summary of my method of using the palpi of butterflies for classifi- 

 catory purposes, as well as of the principal phylogenetic result 

 arrived at in my book on the palpi of Rhopalocera.^-' 



It may first be stated — as I pointed out in a brief note in 1888f — 

 that the labial palpi of all butterflies and moths present a well- 

 marked scaleless area, called the •' basalfleck," or basal spot. This is 

 situated at the lower end of the inner side of the basal joint, and exhibits 

 a great number of peculiar dermal appendages, more or less conical in 

 shape, and a few cavities or pits. It is also, sometimes, transversely 

 striped or rippled. The cones and pits suggest sensory organs, 

 analogous to those described by Kraepelin, Forel, Hauser and others. 



The basalfleck, which is pretty uniform in the different groups of 

 Heterocera, shows, in the various Rhopalocerous families, great 

 variations in extent and form. It also varies considerably in the shape 

 and arrangement, as well as in the degree of development, of its 

 chitinous appendages, and I have, consequently, limited my investi- 

 gations to the butterflies only. 



When studying the palpi of the Rhopalocera, I have taken into con- 

 sideration, mainly, three circumstances, riz., (1) The external shape 

 of the entire palpi, as well as the proportions of the single 

 joints. (2) The scale-covering. (8) The basalfleck. 



The two former characters, especially the first, frequently used as 

 generic and specific characters by systematists, are of comparatively 

 little taxonomic value. As to the scales, the slender hairlike form, 

 according to the view of Kellogg,:!: is considered to represent the more 

 generalised condition, whereas the flattened, short and broad, symme- 

 trical form of the scale indicates a more specialised condition. 

 Consequently, the long, hairlike, projecting scale covering, on the 

 lower part or front of the palpi, which occurs in some members of every 



• Uber die I'alpen der lihopaloceien. Kin iJeitnif,' zur Erkeiintnis der verwaiidt- 

 .<?chaftlichen Bezifhungen unter den Tagfiiltein. Helsingfors, 18'.)U, xvi. -f- .57f^pp 

 4to. 



t Uber den BasalHeck auf den Palpen der Schmetterlinge. Zool. An:., xi , 

 No. 28^!. IHHrt. pp. 500-504. 



\ "The Taxonomic Value of the Scales of the Lcpidoptera." — Kans. I'liir. 

 Quart., vol. iii., No. 1, 1894, pp. 55. 



