112 John Heyiry Comstock 



more reduced than the anal area of the hind wings, the former 

 having a single anal vein, the latter two, PI. II, Fig. 3. This 

 group includes three families. 



F. Butterflies exhibiting no tendency to abortion of the 

 fore legs. Family Pierid^. 



FF. Butterflies exhibiting a marked tendency to abortion 

 of the fore legs. 



G. Family L,yc^nid^. 



GG. Family Nymphalid^. 



The most important innovation in the classification of butter- 

 flies proposed above, after the removal of the skippers, is the 

 dismemberment of the Family Papilionidge of authors, and 

 the raising of the Pierinae to family rank. I propose this 

 change unhesitatingly ; for it seems to me that nowhere 

 within the Frenatas is a dichotoraous division of a line of de- 

 scent more clearly indicated than in this case. 



If I am right in my conclusions the much mooted question 

 as to which is the more highly specialized, the Papilionidse or 

 the Nymphalidse, disappears. For we have to do, not with 

 two elements of a single .series, but with the tips of two dis- 

 tinct lines of descent, each of which represents the highest 

 degree of specialization of its line. 



It is difficult for one who has adopted the commonly ac- 

 cepted classification of the butterflies to realize the great 

 extent of the gap that separates the Papilionidse (as limited 

 here) from the other families of butterflies. The branching 

 oif of the Papilionidse took place long before butterflies as- 

 sumed their present form. At the time when it occurred 

 there had been no reduction of the anal areas, and vein Vj had 

 not begun its migration towards either radius or cubitus. 

 This is as generalized a condition of wing structure as exists 

 in any of the living Frenatae. 



The division between the Pieridae on the one hand and the 

 LycEenidse and Nymphalidae on the other is also well marked. 

 If we compare the Pieridse with the Lycaenidse, the more gen- 

 eralized of the last two families, we find that the Pieridse ex- 

 hibit a much greater specialization of wing structure (as 

 shown by the extent of the consolidation of vein Vi with 



