34 



arrangement as connecting links between the group to which they 

 more decidedly belong, and the group to which, by such varia- 

 tion, they evince an approach : a precisely intermediate species or 

 genus between two classes or sub-classes, or even orders, I have 

 never met with, notwithstanding the renowned Linnaean maxim, 

 that Natura saltus non facit ; for did nature make no leaps, surely 

 the question were immediately at rest as to the existence of any 

 other division than species among created beings, a conclusion 

 which evenVhe most strenuous supporters of the Linnsean dogma 

 decidedly resist. Among the Papiliones, this departure from the 

 type may be looked for either in the form of the antennae, the posi- 

 tion of the wings, or the time of flight. The first is obviously the 

 most tangible should it occur, and it does occur. In Urania, the 

 antennae have become setaceous ; the club has entirely disap- 

 peared, yet the other peculiarities remain much as in Papilio. 

 This single deviation may be assumed as pointing out a relation 

 to Geometra, which the reader will perceive is supposed to meet 

 the sub-class Papilio at this point. A second peculiarity is to be 

 found in an insect figured by Godart, a Polyommatus in shape, 

 but with pertinated antennas ;* the genus he has very suitably 

 named Barbicornis. This deviation, it must be observed, is in 

 favour of the Bombyces, which we therefore suppose touching the 

 sub-class at this point. A third deviation, of a very different 

 kind, is observable in an insect which Latreille has figured in the 

 Regne Animal, and placed among the Sphinges : he calls it 

 Coronis D'Urvillii. The antennae in this genus, as in Castnia, 

 are gradually incrassated, and they may probably be eventually 

 both considered as Papiliones : of Coronis D'Urvillii, I cannot 

 entertain a doubt, as the wings are too expansive, the antennae 

 too long, the abdomen too short for it ever to retain its station 

 among the Sphinges ; the inferior wings are also very decidedly 

 caudate, a common formation among Papiliones, but unknown 

 among Sphinges ; but, let this question be eventually decided pro 

 or con, the approach between Hesperiae and Sphinges is not 



* Latreille seems to think this to have been a deception, and that the 

 antennae which Godart found on the insect did not belong to it. I cannot 

 suppose that the latter author could have been so grossly deceived. 



