The Taxonomic A'aliie of the Scales of the 

 Lepicloptera. 



BY VERNON L. KELLOGG. 



In a recently published essay by Prof. John Henry Comstock (of 

 Cornell and Leland Stanford, Jr. universities), entitled "Evolution 

 and Taxonomy,'"'' is shown an appreciative recognition of the demands 

 which the theory of descent makes upon its believers. Professor 

 Comstock believes that the systematists of today are not making as 

 much use of the theory of descent in taxonomic work as they might. 

 "We are still busy describing species as if they were immutable 

 entities," he says, "and in our descriptions we give little thought to 

 the causes that have determined the forms of organisms. It is true 

 that considerable has been done in the direction of working out the 

 phylogeny of the larger groups, as branches and classes, and to a less 

 extent of orders, but rarely is any effort made to determine the 

 phylogeny of the smaller groups." 



Continuing, Professor Comstock writes as follows: " Here I believe 

 lies the work of the systematist of the future. The description of a 

 new species, genus, family or order, will be considered incomplete 

 until its phylogeny has been determined so far as is possible with the 

 data at hand. We are to care less for the mere discovery of new 

 forms, and more for an understanding of the processes by which new 

 forms have arisen. The object of taxonomy will not be a mere 

 grouping of forms according to similarity of structure, but the sys- 

 tematist will have constantly before him the question: What do these 

 variations of form mean? With this change in the objects of taxo- 

 nomic work, there will come a change in its methods.". 



The method of work which Professor Comstock believes should be 

 followed by the systematic student is stated by him as follows: 



" As the structure of a highly organized animal or plant is too 

 complicated to be understood in detail at once, it is suggested that 

 the student begin with the study of a single organ possessed by the 

 members of the group to be classified, and that his study take the 



♦Comstock, John Heury. Evoliitiou and Taxonomy: an essay on the application of the 

 theory of natural selection in the classification of animals and plants, illustrated by a 

 study of the evolution of the wings of insects, and by a contribution to the classification 

 of the Lepidoptera. pp. 37-113. with 33 figures and 3 plates in the Wilder Quarter-Century 

 Hook, 1893, Ithaca, N. Y. 



(45) KAfl. UNIV. QUAIl. YOJj. Ill, NO. 1, JULY, 1894, 



