CHAPTER X. 



THE CASE MOTHS (PSYCHID.ii). 



Strange and Abnoivnal Lepidoptera. 



It seems an incontrovertible fact in natural history 

 that there is not a single character which has been 

 used to distinguish any group of considerable extent 

 from which some one or more of the members thereof 

 may not depart. In that great division of the animal 

 kingdom characterized by the possession of articulated 

 limbs, many species are met which are entirely wanting 

 in those organs ; and, similarly, the secondary division 

 of the Annulosa, marked by the presence of wings in 

 the final state — the Ptilota of Aristotle — contains species 

 that, throughout life, never acquire instruments of flight. 

 Of wingless insects, indeed, examples might be drawn 

 from most of the orders, and in the majority of cases, 

 the females only are thus deprived. Rarely, however, 

 both the orreat characteristics are absent. Yet certain 

 moths do not possess articulated feet in the wingless 

 state. 



Consequently, if we took into consideration merely 



