FINAL NOTES ON TIIK TKriIROSrA HYBRIDS. 1 l') 



a <? parent unknown, which produced, in 1897, imagines both of the 

 typical York hinmbiUuia and ab. ddameremix. These formed only a 

 small proportion of the larvae that pupated, the rest dying. 



From the above facts, it is evident that ddameremis is only an 

 aberration in the York district, thou.^h it is stated that it breeds true 

 in some other localities. 



On closing these notes of the 'J\'p/u<isia hybrids of 1897, I should 

 like to enter a protest, if not too late, against the substitution of the 

 name T. crepHscularla with its previous association, for that of T. hinn- 

 dularia — it cannot but cause confusion. I would recall the pregnant 

 words of Darwin, in some of his letters — " I do not think more credit 

 is due to a man for defining a species than to a carpenter for making 

 a box," and again—" I have come to a fixed opinion that the plan of 

 the first describer's name being appended for perpetuity to a species 

 has been the greatest curse to natural history." 



Classification of the Saturniades. 



By Professor A. RADCLIFFE GROTE, M.A. * 



Dr. Dyar claims (aiitc, p. 36) that the ncm-ational characters, "broadly 

 interpreted," do not contradict but confirm his classification of the 

 Saturndvdes. It depends upon what is meant by " broadly." Under a 

 loose interpretation the neurational characters may contradict no, and 

 confirm any, possible classification. But, interpreted with exactness, 

 they absolutely oppose themselves to Dr. Dyar's classification, and the 

 notion that they do not, I believe, springs from a want of apprecia- 

 tion of their showing. Hcmileuca is a generalised Satm-nian, because 

 it retains vein viii of seecmdaries, but it is a Saturniau because on the 

 primaries iv^ and iv^ are produced upon a stem. A;ilia is a specialised 

 Automerid, because, while iv^ and iv2 are not so produced, and never 

 can be, the movement of the median series is slightly more progressed. 

 To graft Hemileiica on the Automerid stem we have to associate a 

 form with greatly and differently advanced specialisation of primaries, 

 as comjiared with Automeris, and generalised secondaries, with a form 

 which has specialised secondaries and a primary wing developed on 

 a ditt'ereut line or pattern. We must suppose that Aiitomeris has 

 developed out of Hemileucid-like ancestors on accoimt of the retained 

 vein viii in the latter, while this prototype has a primary wing dc- 

 velo})ed after the fashion of SaUiniia, a fashion which it seems physi- 

 cally impossible can have given birth to a structure like Antonm-u. 

 No one can, I think, fail to see the contradiction involved in Dr. 

 Dyar's classification. I conclude, finally, that the structure of the 

 wings calls for the classification as estal)rished l)y me, and that it is a 

 clear matter of two dilfcrcnt tendencies ; one of these is, that the two 

 upper l)ranches of the median, iv^ and iv.^, furcate upon a long stem, 

 morphologically the upjier i)art of the cross- vein, and the otlier is, that 

 vein iVj advances towards tlie radius, to be finally absor])ed by it in 

 Citlurnnia, while iv^ remains central or nearly so, and shows no di.s- 

 position to fm-cate w^ith iv^. The character of vein viii is one upon 

 which Jlt'iiiilcHca and atheroma converge. It is not here of phylo- 

 geuetic importance, binding the two otherwise disparate forms. All 

 the other imaginal characters contradict the In-iuging of Uemilnica and 



