MosLEY : Classification of British Lepidopteea. 87 



The list thus includes the names of 48 species and named varieties 

 of mollusca, to which should be added, Anodonta anatina^ L., 

 Ancylns fluvlatilis, MiilL, var. gibbosa^ Bourg., Zonites radiatulus. Aid., 

 and Vertigo pygmcBa, Drap., forms which were enumerated in my 

 paper on Semerdale, as having occurred in that little valley, and 

 which have not as yet been reported from other parts of Wensley- 

 dale. These additions bring up the total of the Wensleydale 

 molluscan fauna, so far as is at present known, to 52 species and 

 varieties, of which 10 only are aquatic forms. 



Leeds, Oct. 31, 1882. 



AN ATTEMPT TO CLASSIFY THE BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA, 



SO AS TO FOEM A CONNECTION 

 WITH THE TRICHOPTERA AT ONE END, AND THE 

 HYMENOPTERA AT THE OTHER. 



By S. L MosLEY. 



Mr. Benjamin Cooke says that one order of insects has nothing 

 whatever to do with another order, and that each should be arranged 

 independently of the other. I scarcely think that this is the view 

 entertained by naturalists generally, and for myself, I have always 

 thought that the most natural arrangement is that by which one 

 unbroken continuity is obtained, one uninterrupted progression from 

 species to species, genus to genus, family to family, and order to order. 

 If one order or one genus has no connection with another, what is the 

 use of quibbling over the " natural position " of such and such a genus 

 — say Acentropus 1 The progress from one order to another should 

 be as imperceptible as possible, and each should, at both endsj 

 merge gradually into the next-of-kin. 



I will, therefore, attempt to arrange the lepidoptera according to the 

 above plan, though perhaps without much effect, for collectors are so 

 accustomed to arrange their collection with Papilio Machaon at the 

 head, that any other plan would be discarded as unnatural —not being 

 like their cabinet drawers. The type of any genus, family, or order, 

 should not be at the head, but in the centre, and shade off above and 

 below into the next division, as expressed in my last paper. 



In the first place, let us consider the two divisions I have placed 

 next to the lepidoptera. 



Trichoptera. — These insects are, undoubtedly, very nearly allied to 

 the lepidoptera, so near, indeed, that the late Ed. Newman, at one 



