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of exotic Phalasnse. Even supposing myself acquainted with all 

 our indigenous species, they will barely furnish a systematist with 

 a clew to the truth : you may pick up a single link of a chain, 

 yet fail to discover the length of that chain, or the situation in 

 that chain which the link originally possessed. 



Having, then, pointed out, as clearly as my limited knowledge 

 of the subject will permit, not only the principal contents of the 

 class Lepidoptera, but endeavoured to establish them in appointed 

 and fixed stations, and to show their mutual approaches, at least 

 those of the most striking kind and essential to my purpose, 

 I must now proceed to make a few remarks on the nature of 

 these approaches. It will be observed, that they are, almost 

 without an exception, what Mr. MacLeay considers relations of 

 affinity, that is, the relation is between species which, in their 

 imago state, have a real and positive similarity to each other ; 

 so much so, that entomologists, unacquainted with the prior states, 

 and frequently even in direct defiance of their own knowledge 

 of those states, place them in orders, and even sub-classes to 

 which they do not belong ; to which fact all our systems and 

 catalogues bear most ample testimony. This similarity is by no 

 means confined to a cursory glance at the insects, but bears the 

 test of a minute anatomical investigation, the antlia, palpi and 

 antennae demonstrating the approach quite as forcibly as the form 

 and appearance of the whole insect. Where a tribe has short 

 biarticulate palpi, a genus departing from the type will assume 

 elongated and triarticulate palpi, should another tribe with those 

 characters approach it : again, should a tribe with long antlia 

 approach a tribe whose character it is to have none, we shall be 

 sure to find a genus without antlia at the point of approach. 

 On the other hand, the very egg, the larva, the pupa, the mode 

 of feeding and description of food, the mode of metamorphosis, 

 and, in fact, every prior quality, or state, from which distinctions 

 could be obtained, differ so decidedly, that the characters of these 

 often bear as near an approach to those of Hymenoptera, Neu- 

 roptera, and even Coleoptera, as to those of their own kindred, 

 into immediate contact with which these approaches will be found 

 inevitably to bring them. What term can then be applied to 

 designate the real value of this species of approach ? Supposing 



