248 The American Naturalist. ° [March, 
THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE LEPIDOPTERA. 
By Vernon L. KELLOGG. 
The new provisional classification of the Lepidoptera by 
Professor J. H. Comstock,’ based on characters drawn from the 
wing-structure, presents as its most radical departure from 
earlier arrangements, the erection within the order of two sub- 
orders. One of these groups, the Jugate, is thus defined by 
Professor Comstock: “This suborder includes those moths in 
which the two wings of each side are united by a membranous 
lobe, the jugum, borne at the base of the inner margin of the 
fore wings, and in which the anal area of the hind wings is 
reduced while the radial is not. The most available recogni- 
tion character is the similarity in venation of the two pairs of 
wings; radius being five-branched in the hind wings as well 
as in the fore wings.” This suborder comprises but two fami- 
lies, the Hepialidee and the Micropterygide, each family con- 
taining but one genus, Hepialus and Micropteryx respectively. 
The suborder Frenate is characterized as follows: ‘This 
suborder includes those moths and butterflies in which the 
two wings of each side are united by a frenulum, borne at the 
base of the costal margin of the hind wings, or by a substitute | 
for a frenulum, a large humeral area of the hind wings ; and 
in which radius of the hind wings is reduced to an unbranched 
condition, while in the more generalized forms the anal area is 
not reduced. The most available recognition character is the 
dissimilarity in venation of the two pairs of wings, due to the 
unbranched condition of radius of the hind wings, while this 
vein in the fore wings separates into several branches.” The 
Frenate includes all the families of Lepidoptera except the 
Hepialide and the Micropterygide. 
1 Comstock, John Henry. Evolution and Taxonomy : An Essay on the applica- 
tion of the Theory of Natural Selection in the Classification of Animals and 
Plants, illustrated by a study of the evolution of the wings of insects and by a 
contribution to the Classification of the Lepidoptera, pp. 37-113, with 33 figs. 
and 3 plates, in the Wilder Quarter-Century Book, 1893, Ithaca, N. Y. 
