lo LEPIDOPTERA. 



are more reliable than tliose which pertain especially to the more 

 ornamental male. Classification is, however, largely a matter 

 of opinion. The absolute necessity — in books, lists, and 

 collections — for a linear arrangement precludes the possi- 

 bility of one which is really natural, since, although the 

 relations of groups to each other are often evident, they ramify, 

 extend, intersect, and interlace to such a degree that it is 

 only possible to take group after group in as natural a suc- 

 cession as seems to commend itself to the individual writer, 

 with the knowledge on his part that the arrangement is partly 

 the outcome of his own particular views, and that in all 

 probability those of other authors are equally substantial. 

 That which has hitherto been followed for our native species 

 does not appear to be disturbed to a very large extent by an 

 examination of the species found in other parts of the world. 



One grand dividing line, separating the whole order into 

 two parts, is found in the structure of the antennas. These in 

 one group have a club-shaped, spoon-shaped, or otherwise 

 blunt termination, whence the group is named Rluqndoccra 

 (club- horned) ; in the other they are pointed, but otherwise 

 extremely various in form, whence the second group is called 

 Hdcrocera (variously-horned). This structural division corre- 

 sponds so closely with the appearance and habits of the two 

 groups that the species contained in the former are commonly 

 known as butterflies, those of the latter as moths. Other 

 characters — the structure of the waist, or connection of the 

 abdomen with the thorax, the absence or presence of wing 

 bristles, and the modes of carrying the wings, strengthen 

 this broad line of demarcation. Both groups break up 

 naturally into subordinate divisions, which, however, must be 

 dealt with as they are reached. 



Synonymy, or the subject of names — and particularly the 

 question which name, where the species has been described or 

 figured under more than one — is a subject of great diflSculty. 

 Those given by Linne — who established the system of nomen- 

 clature now in use — and his immediate disciples and followers 



