6 GROTE—THE DESCENT OF THE PIERIDS. (Jan. 5, 
eralized Hesperian number of radial veins in the operation. The 
principal feature of the Lyczenid-Hesperid offshoot is nearly real- 
ized by the next departure, that of the Nymphalids, in the ‘ long- 
fork’’ of the Charaxine. Finally, we find the main branch itself 
culminating in the Pierids, which, while otherwise agreeing well 
with the brush-footed butterflies in neuration, are to-day nearly all 
relatively more specialized, the radius of the primary wings being 
usually only four-veined, the upper veinlets of the media tending 
also to travel up the vein and arise from beyond the cell. From 
this branch of the Hesperiades I have tried to disentangle the over- 
lapping Papilionides, with their short, free and downwardly curved 
third anal vein on the fore wings, the second anal vein showing no 
thinner basal fork, as it does in the Hesperiades and most of the rest 
of the Lepidoptera. Even if, as appears to be Mr. Quail’s opinion, 
I have not succeeded in getting rid of this Papilionid spray alto- 
gether, I have at least shown that its supposed issue from the Hes- 
periades branch, between the Blues and the Skippers, affords no 
growing point, the two latter being consecutive groups. And 
this was my main endeavor, to take Paf/io out from between 
Lycena and Hesperia. 
And now having cleared as well as I am able the branch down 
to the Skippers or Hesperiadee, let me try to get lower still and 
find the connection of the Pieri-Hesperiadz with the trunk of the 
lepidopterous tree, tne Tineides. And here I am met by an ob- 
struction, and also a general prepossession out of which this ob- 
struction arises. I will try to deal first with the prevalent assump- 
tion, which is, that the diurnals outrank the rest of the Lepidoptera, 
are more specialized, and that they represent, so to speak, the out- 
come of the evolution of the order, which has travailed long to 
produce them. This view is pictorially represented by all the 
genealogical trees I have seen, and we may take that of Dr. Pack- 
ard (1895) as an example. Here the butterflies unfold themselves 
in the left-hand corner, at the top of the page, and the support- 
ing twigs and limbs are supplied by all the moths, arranged more 
or less after the catalogue sequence, until we get down to the roots, 
represented by the Tineina and Eriocephalide. How it comes, 
after such a progression, that the pupz of the diurnals still show 
Tineid features, as evidenced by Dr. Chapman, how it comes that 
the wings of butterflies retain generalized structures as I try to 
prove, seems, and no doubt is, incompatible with this perfect 
