I06 R.C. EXTOMOLOGICAI. SOCIETY. 



Hymenoptera are placed last for want of a better position. We do not 

 intend to indicate by tbis that these two orders are closely related, or 

 that they are more specialized than the Diptera. In fact, with regard 

 to at least five of the orders of insects (Hemiptera, Lepidoptera, Diptera, 

 Coleoptera, and Hymenoptera), it seems idle to us to discuss which is 

 the more highly specialized. Each has been specialized in a direction 

 peculiar to itself; and to attempt to describe which is the 'highest' 

 seems as futile as the discussion by children of the question: 'Which 

 is better, sugar or salt? 



The application of the principle of neuration has been, as I have 

 already stated, the. main foundation for determining the phylogeny and 

 relationship of Lepidoptera, but other important features have been 

 taken into account, viz.: the jitgum and the frcnuhim; the eggs, whether 

 flat or upright ; the arrangement of the tubercles on larvae ; the movable 

 incisions of pupa ; and the hooks on prolegs of larvae. 



In a paper on the classification of Lepidoptera printed in the Trans- 

 actions of the Entomological Society of London, 1895. ^I"". J. ^V. Tutt 

 states as follows : — 



■' No scheme based on a single set of characters belonging to only 

 one stage of an insect's existence could possibly be even approximately 

 perfect. It is possible to conceive that — especially in those orders in 

 which the methods of life differ so greatly in the various stages, and 

 diiTerent means of defence and protection are thus rendered necessary 

 — an insect may be very greatly modified in one particular stage without 

 any corresponding modification in the other stages being at all necessary. 

 It may ha])pen to be of advantage for the larva to be of a generalized 

 type, and for the imago to be much more specialized, or vice versa. If 

 this be granted, it follows that no scheme of classification that is not 

 founded upon a consideration of the structural details and peculiarities 

 of the insects in all their stages can be considered as really sound, or 

 as founded upon a natural basis. It is also evident that the results of 

 the various systems — whether based or oval, larval, pupal, or imaginal 

 characters — must be compared, and the sum total of evidence brought 

 together, if a satisfactory result is to be obtained." 



The conclusion come to by Mr. Tutt concerning the characters 

 considered important by various authors, including Comstock, Packard, 

 Dyar, in America, and Chapman in England, is as follows : — 



" I. The Jugum. — As Chapman has already pointed out, this is the 

 * remnant of a wing-lobe, well developed in many Neuroptera, and 

 appears to have no such function as is attributed to it (i.e., of combining 

 the wings in flight).' The hind-wing of Micropteryx (Eriocrania) has 

 ' also an external lobe or " jugum " " (Packard). The classificatory value 

 of the jugum by which Comstock separates the whole order Lepidoptera 

 into Jugatse and Frenatse, therefore, is such as to shut off the two or three 

 most generalized superfamilies, such separation giving us no clue what- 



