1 894-] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 69 



The Geometrina are, in the main, very easily separated from 

 other families of the Lepidoptera. but in some cases they very 

 nearly approach certain Bombycina and Noctuina. From the 

 latter they can be distinguished by the position of vein 5 of the 

 fore wings, which in the Noctuina is close to 4, at the lower angle 

 of the cell, while in the Geometrina it is near the middle of the 

 outer edge of the cell. 



From the Bombycina they are separated by a phase of struc- 

 ture which is at once characteristic and exclusive — namely, the 

 structure of the larva. The tendency of the Bombycina is to- 

 wards the modification of the posterior abdominal legs to other 

 uses, often resulting in their entire abortion. In the Geometrina 

 the tendency is to give them more power by an abortion of the 

 anterior abdominal legs. I am aware that entomologists look 

 with little favor upon taking anything but the mature insect in 

 classification, but embryology will change that. In botany, and 

 elsewhere in zoology, embryological characters are regarded as 

 being of the greatest importance, and certainly a student can 

 locate his insect as closely by the eyesight only from the larvae as 

 he can from the imagines. The species is the insect in both 

 sexes, and in its whole history. 



The classification of the Geometrina has been largely artificial 

 and empirical. The systematists have seemingly arranged their 

 •collections as nearly as it seemed they ought to be from appear- 

 ance, and made their genera conform to peculiarities of appear- 

 ance or the more obvious breaks in the line. There was no 

 ability, and rarely any effort to exclusive definition. Some have, 

 through Hiibner, Curtis, Stephens, Treitschke, Duponchel and 

 Guen6e, a classification without structural definition, and this has 

 culminated with the system of von Gumpenberg, who follows 

 the law that ' ' nothing shall be used in classification which re- 

 quires the use of the glass, or the denuding in any way of the 

 insect." The early systematists of course are to be pardoned, 

 as they were pioneers groping their way to the light. 



A structural classification was begun by Herrich-Schaeffer, 

 and vastly bettered by Lederer, whose system has been followed 

 in Europe from his time till now. Both, however, had in their 

 systems much that was not based on structure. 



In 1892, Mr. Edward Meyrick, of England, published a paper 

 on the "Classification of the Geometrina of the European 



