1898] CLASSIFICATION OF THE DAY BUTTERFLIES 2?, 



thus probably, at some point in their history, liaving given off the 

 Nymphalid Suspensi, and to-day their wings show specialisation in 

 both of two directions, while the brush-footed butterflies only show- 

 it in one. The plain palpable fact, that the wings of Papilio are 

 laden with characters contradicting those of Hesperia, is ignored by 

 Mr Scudder, who pursues after characters, either fancied or of less 

 or misunderstood value, to assist his theory, which seems to him 

 to demand that the two groups be brought together. Alone the 

 position of the radial branches, notably that of III4 and II I5, make 

 it extremely improbable that Hesperia and Pajnlio should be at all 

 nearly related. Eeasons may be far-fetched and resemblances de- 

 ceptive, but, when we come upon characters which forbid, we may be 

 sure our schemes ought to be dropped . We cannot, with Mr Renter, 

 bridge a difficulty with a Latin name. 



There exist likewise a number of published arrangements, beside 

 Mr Scudder's, in which the ' Blues ' are brought in next to the 

 ' Whites,' and, as is oftenest the case, without any assigned reason. 

 Not unlikely is this course, in some instances at least, due to a re- 

 cognition of the fact that in both groups a diminution in the number 

 of radial branches occurs. But this reduction takes place also in 

 the Parnassiinae and in the Saturniades as well, and is clearly a 

 recurrent, secondary movement, following a general direction in 

 evolution. As such, in the absence of other grounds, it constitutes 

 no sufficient basis for bringing the ' Whites ' and ' Blues ' together, 

 and cannot be properly used for such a purpose in classification. 

 But to review all the proposed arrangements of the day butterflies 

 would give us a volume as bulky and difficult to manage as that 

 recently issued by Mr Eeuter. It will be sufficient if we have 

 made it clear that the nature of the class of characters, used by 

 recent systematists to establish their sequences, has frequently not 

 been well understood. 



Before giving a summary of the results at which I have arrived 

 from the study of the neuration, it may be well to give the method 

 employed. This consisted in preparing enlarged photographs of all 

 the wing patterns to be studied. By placing these impressions side 

 by side upon shelves where they could be shifted, comparison could 

 be readily effected, and, in this way, the difficulty of examining each 

 specimen by itself under a microscope and carrying the picture of 

 what was to be noted in the mind, was obviated. Sketches and 

 drawings are here of little use, while almost all the published draw- 

 ings I have been able to compare are not sufficiently accurate to be 

 relied upon for study. 



And before enumerating the detailed observations upon which 

 my conclusions are based, I may epitomise these latter as follows : 

 The system of Bates, which places the brush-footed butterflies * at 



