Dec. 1897 ] 
155 
Grote : Classification of Lepidoptera. 
have called the “moving veins” appear to follow a still active law of 
development. Of the three primary veins, Radius, Cubitus and 
Media, the two main trunks have attained a certain fixity opposi¬ 
tion through processes which have been carried on during an unmeasur¬ 
able past. The criticism which our knowledge of the direction of the 
venation allows us of the recently published systems of classification is: 
that these are often founded on characters the relative value of which 
has not been ascertained, their recurring nature not taken into account. 
It is as though I had placed Nemeobius among the Pieridae, because its 
pattern of venation demanded it, and then proceeded to erect a violent 
system upon such a basis after the fashion of Mr. Meyrick. But much 
better work will be done in working out all the variations in a single 
organ, endeavoring to bring out clearly the value of these variations 
and allowing the existing classificatory sequence, I might say the Lin- 
nean sequence, as a rule, to stand. The work before us is still to make 
what is now difficult, easy. When we have reached this goal upon any 
point of our subject, there will arise plenty to take up the matter and 
display their penetration upon it further. 
So we see that the principal gain from these studies is the attainment 
of a measure, a distinct register, of specialization. By it the groups and 
genera drop more naturally into their places. And these studies are 
critical of Mr. Meyrick’s pretensions, who would arrange the Lepidop¬ 
tera upon neuration but offers us a mass of incorrect figures, an impos¬ 
sible phylogeny and the proof positive that he has nowhere understood 
the movement of the veins. So, too, they reach classificators who 
blindly thrust the Swallowtails between the Blues and Hesperids, and 
they show that these also, have not even understood the conditions of 
the problem they assume to have solved with so much pomp of learning. 
In Comstock s “ Evolution and Taxonomy,” to which work my in¬ 
debtedness is very grea*, I find no distinct recognition of the two main di¬ 
rections of evolution in the wings as such, while there is everywhere ap¬ 
parent the laudable effort to correlate the changes with mechanical causes. 
The suppression of the Media is detailed on page 76. In this, my first 
direction, the movement of IV2 is thus discussed: “But in which 
direction would one expect the base of vein V2 to migrate ? Occupying 
an intermediate position between radius and cubitus it may go either 
way. It is like a stream in the middle of a level plain, a trifle may 
change its course.” The view taken by me is that there is a contest be¬ 
tween Radius and Cubitus for the possession of the residue of the 
Media, after base and crossvein have degenerated. The two principal 
