INTRODUCTION. 35 



pidoptera, in various peculiarities of its metamorphosis. The larva is small, oblong, 

 sluggish, broad, and slightly hairy, and evidently allied to that of the Vermiform 

 stirps of the Papilionidae : the change takes place without any cocoon, the pupa being 

 suspended in the open air by means of two threads ; the perfect insect is strikingly 

 characterized by its plumiform wings, and long, slender, filiform antennae. M. 

 Reaumur coincides with the authors of the Vienna Catalogue, in placing this group 

 between the diurnal and nocturnal Lepidoptera. 



In the concise enumeration of the stirpes of the Papilionida?, premised to the 

 general view of the subdivisions of this order, their analogical relation to certain 

 primary annulose forms was very generally indicated. It may be useful, there- 

 fore, to give some further details on this subject, to show its more immediate 

 bearing on my present inquiry, and to apply the analogy which directed Mr. Macleay 

 in the arrangement of the Coleoptera, in the same manner to Lepidopterous insects. 

 With this view I refer the reader to the sketch contained on the third plate, in which 

 the principal types of form of the larva? of this tribe are disposed in groups, in the 

 order in which Mr. Macleay has arranged the Ametabola in the Horse Entomological ; 

 vid. pp. 350 and 351 ; and I hope to be able to show hereafter, that the passage 

 from one group to the other is perfectly natural, that the affinities in this stage of 

 existence are continuous and uninterrupted, and that they constitute a series return- 

 ing into itself. The confirmation afforded to this position by the analogy of the 

 Ametabola, will be more fully developed in the course of the work ; and a final test 

 of its correctness will be supplied by the insect in its imago state. If it shall appear 

 that an adherence to the succession of the forms of larvae above described leads to a 

 natural disposition of the subjects of this tribe in the perfect state, the principle of 

 arrangement will be established on a firm basis. 



Referring therefore to the diagram on the third plate, I request the attention of 

 the reader in the first place to that type, which for reasons soon to be stated, and 

 which indeed are obvious at first sight, I have denominated Vermiform. I desire 

 him further to proceed in a direction to the left hand to the Chilognathiform or 

 Juliform type ; this will lead him to the Chilopodiform or Scolopendriform type ; 

 then changing his direction and turning again towards the right, he meets the Thysa- 

 nuriform, and next to that, the Anopluriform type ; and thus by a connected series 

 he is brought back again to the Vermiform type with which he commenced. The 

 forms of the larvae themselves are familiar to all entomologists, who have paid any 

 attention to the metamorphosis of this order, and examples of them may be seen in 

 various entomological works, exhibiting Lepidoptera in their different stages of ex- 

 istence. Most of those which are represented on the sketch, have been taken as they 

 occurred, partly from the Javanese Collection and partly from works of science, 



f 2 without 



