158 Journal New York Entomological Society. [Voi. v. 
or Limnadidae, which are distinctly less specialized than the Nymphalidae 
proper. So that we see that the statement of the Editor of the Phila¬ 
delphia “Check List,” that, in his “opinion,” the Nymphalidae are 
“ correctly placed at the head of the Rhopalocera ” is not derived from 
what this writer elsewhere calls “scientific knowledge” or “science,” 
but is plainly the result of an effort to get into good company. It is 
characteristic also of this sort of “opinion,” that when we turn to the 
List itself we find it to “head” with the Limnadidae, the most gener¬ 
alized of the four-footed Butterflies. The success of the Nymphalid 
branch in attaining a variety of forms and a vast array of species 
has been great, and this tends to our believing it to he so dominating. 
It is, however, lateral, not on the main line. In the accompanying 
diagram the opening of the cell has led me even to give the higher 
groups perhaps too exalted a position, but this is a minor point. The 
connection of the Charaxini, a foreign group, with the main stem of the 
Nymphalidae is problematical. I have commented on its position else¬ 
where, and it must be brought into place when the tropical butterflies 
are studied upon the basis here set forth. 
4. It may be further assumed, that, in former periods of time, the 
grouping was laxer than to-day, and that the families we now are able 
to separate were once interconnected by forms which have dropped out. 
At that time the four or brush-footed butterflies may have been more 
nearly connected with the six-footed stem. From small and specialized 
groups we cannot expect the birth of new features, but from large and 
spreading assemblages, presenting a wide range of character. That 
such a state of affairs existed in the Whites, we have the testimony of 
Leptidia to prove. This butterfly appears now as an isolated survivor 
of what was probably a large group of Pieridae. The abyss separating 
Leptidia from the Pierinae is profound and I am informed that even 
more important deviations still exist in the family. The Pierids may 
then well represent the matrix from which the four-footed type pro¬ 
ceeded. 
5. Boisduval’s groups of Suspensi, Succincti, Involuti, based on the 
fashion of fastening the chrysalis, have no existence as phylogenetic as¬ 
semblages, hence are improperly used in this manner by Mr. Scudder. 
The Papilionid, Pierid and Lycaenid Succincti have clearly reached the 
habit independently. It is a fallacy to believe, with Mr. Scudder, that 
there is a regular progression from the cocoon of the moths to a total ab¬ 
sence of the use of silk. Instances are not rare where the generalized 
forms spin little or no silk and the specialized forms on the same phyloge- 
