MOTHS AND THEIR CLASSIFICATION. 2938 
separate group, as has usually been done, or, in accordance with 
the views of Lord Walsingham and Mr. Durrant, merged in the 
Tineina, is only a question of name and convenience, and there- 
fore of no marked importance. It should be noted that in all 
the families of these groups there are normally three free veins 
(La, 1b, 1c) between the cell and dorsum in the hind wings, 
though in cases where the area of wing is very small, as in some 
of the minute Tineina, these and most of the other veins are 
liable to disappear. 
Here may be considered two particular cases, those of the 
Aegeriade and Trypanide. The Aegeriade, popularly known as 
‘‘clear-wings”’ from the hyaline spaces on their wings, used 
formerly to be oddly placed near the Sphingide, but are in all 
essential characters undoubted Tineina, parallel in development 
with the Gelechiade and Oecophoride. The Trypanide (Cosside 
of some) must be regarded as unspecialized Tortricina, marking 
the transition from the Tineid@ ; the comparatively gigantic size 
of the single British species is at first sight somewhat startling, 
but this is not always maintained in exotic forms, and there is 
really no other distinction at all. The wood-feeding habit of the 
larva is very characteristic of that group of the Tineide from 
which it is derived. 
Having now established in the Zineina a base of origin, with 
’ which the connection of the general body of Lepidoptera has 
to be traced, we may consider what characters can be held to 
indicate nearness to or remoteness from this base. The best 
indication for this purpose will be furnished by the presence 
or loss of some ancestral character which when once lost is 
incapable of redevelopment. Prof. Comstock has employed the 
frenulum for this, but the choice appears to be unfortunate, for 
three reasons, viz. (1) the proportion separable as having lost the 
frenulum is comparatively small; (2) the frenulum may have been 
lost in different groups quite independently, and has in fact 
obviously been so lost in several families ; (3) as the frenulum is 
apparently only the modification of hairs which are always 
present, there seems no reason why it might not exceptionally be 
redeveloped by reversion. A better character is furnished by the 
presence or absence of vein 1c in the hind wings, which is found 
to be usually constant not only in families, but in main groups, 
