CoRBiN : Notes on Acentropus Niveus. 51 



Nivea, Nivosa, Hansoni, Garnonsii, Niveus, Neva, Latipennis, Badensis, 

 Germanicus, Ohscurus) — are but local varieties of one and the same 

 species, for which he retains the name niveus. It is quite certain 

 that several of the above names are synonymous, and in one or two 

 cases the male and female have had distinct specific names assigned 

 to them, even with those so-called species whose separation seems to 

 be a much easier task, since the females differ. There arises this 

 difficulty, that the males, if placed together and mixed, are insepar- 

 able ; so that Mr. D.'s conclusion is not to be spoken lightly of until 

 we have more positive data on which to found an argument. The 

 larvae possibly would settle it, but from the few vague descriptions 

 given, they seem to resemble each other in a remarkable degree. I 

 am, therefore, quite willing to accept the oneness which Mr. Dun- 

 ning's investigations have elucidated, and Mr. McLachlan, after a 

 careful microscopic examination of the sexual organs (so specifically 

 different in the caddis-flies) of specimens from various localities, says 

 he is not prepared to combat the conclusions which Mr. Dunning has 

 arrived at. 



A German naturalist of the name of Speyer, is somewhat Darwinian 

 in his conclusions, after a long and closer investigation of our insect ; 

 and I cannot do better than quote a paragraph of Mr. Dunning's on 

 the subject. He says : — " Speyer explains the peculiarities in mode 

 of life and organization of Acentropus, by regarding it as the repre- 

 sentative of an older branch of the original stock of moths, the other 

 members of which branch have disappeared. The primitive insect 

 forms must be sought in water, the atavi of the lepidoptera rose from 

 the water to the land, and adapted themselves to terrestrial and aerial 

 life ; and Acentropus, the most distinctly aquatic of all known moths, 

 is, from this point of view, the primeval type, the nearest extant 

 representative of the grand ancestor of all the lepidoptera." I am 

 not a believer in evolution myself, so scarcely accept this view. In 

 almost every instance where the theory is tried to be proved, there is 

 a " missing link " which cannot be found, even in a fossil state. Had 

 Mr. Darwin been able to find the link between the fossil Dryopithecus 

 and man, his theory could not have failed to be more complete. All 

 I can say, if our largest moths, as the SpJiingidts, &c., (and these are 

 small compared with their foreign relations) were developed from the 

 insect which is the subject of this article, the evolution must have 

 begun a long time ago. There is no striking resemblance between an 

 A. niveus and Acherontia Atropos, except in that I have endeavoured 

 to prove — that both belong to the same great order. 



