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MEMOIES OF THE ifATIOXAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
SpliiiigeSj witli tlieir peculiar swift, powerful flight, met with success iu life much beyoud that of 
the Ceratocampidie, from which they probably originated. 
We have, from time to time, for thirty years past, insisted ou the.geueralized and primitive 
features of the Bombycine moths or those families generally included under this head, and now it 
seems very clear that they have retained many more vestigial characters, and are thus more 
generalized and ancient groups than the Xoctnidie, Geometridfe, and Sphingida*. 
Space has prevented our si)eaking of the vestigial characters of the imagines cf the 
Bombycine moths, such as the vestigial maxillary palpi of tlie SaturniidiC. 
It is hoped that .hereafter more attention will' bo paid to a study of the pupal structures 
of Lepidoptera, i^articularly of the Tiiieoid moths. And it need scarcely be urged that it is 
most desirable that the authors of future catalogues of Lepidoptera will begin with the most 
generalized forms, the tineids, and end with the butterflies, as being iu better accord with the 
results of recent studies and with the princiides of evolution. In that way there will gradually 
be infused among collectors and beginners more scientific conceptions of the origin of the 
Lepidoptera, and thus the collection and examination of these insects will have an educational 
value which at present seems iu some quarters entirely lacking. 
