290 Dr. Frederick A. Dixey on the 
limitations above referred to, and is not to be taken 
as more than a connected statement of the probable 
import of the facts derivable from one _ particular 
source—those facts, namely, which relate to the colours 
and markings. I need hardly say that I recognise to 
the full that any phylogenetic conclusions founded on 
these data must of necessity be open to checking and 
correction in the light of information arrived at in other 
ways. 
The evidence that has now been examined seems to 
indicate that the wings in the earliest form of Pierine 
were uniformly overspread with a dark neutral tint.* 
The first variation from this condition appears to have 
occurred by the paling of certain areas in the principal 
interspaces between the nervures; a modification that 
may be seen in probably its simplest extant form in the 
remarkable American Pierine Hucheira socialis (Fig. 1). 
Here each interspace, including the discoidal cel! in both 
wings, possesses a more or less definite pale patch, those 
of successive interspaces being so arranged as to form a 
somewhat indistinct and interrupted band crossing the 
disc of both wings from the costa to the inner margin. 
Besides this central series of pale patches, there is also 
a submarginal row of much smaller and fainter spots of 
the same greyish-white hue. The whole pattern is 
repeated with very little change on the under surface, 
but on the hindwing with even less distinctness than 
above. The underside of the hindwing in this insect, 
indeed, probably exhibits the very oldest kind of Pierine 
colouring to be seen in any existing species.t 
The primitive system of marking manifested by 
Hucheira socialis persists with little alteration on the 
upper surface of many species of Catasticta, as, for 
“ This accords generally with the opinion expressed by Mr. 
Wallace: “There are, in fact, many indications of a regular 
succession of tints in which colour development has occurred in 
the various groups of butterflies from an original grayish or 
brownish neutral tint.” Darwinism,” 2nd edition, 1889, p. 274. 
+ While entirely agreeing with Staudinger and Schatz that the 
remarkable forms Styx infernalis and Pseudopontia paradoxa are 
probably of great antiquity, I cannot but regard the special 
Pierine affinities claimed for them by these authors (and especially 
for the latter) as more than doubtful. See Staudinger, Schatz, 
and Rober, “ Exotische Schmetterlinge,” 1892, sub voe. 
