ccessive variations, each one advantageous to its possessor, must see,
in the possession of such an organ by one group, and its complete
absence in every other, a proof of a very ancient origin and of very
long-continued modification. And such a positive structural addition to
the organization of the family, subserving an important function, seems
to me alone sufficient to warrant us in considering the Papilionidae as
the most highly developed portion of the whole order, and thus in
retaining it in the position which the size, strength, beauty, and
general structure of the perfect insects have been generally thought to
deserve.

In Mr. Trimen's paper on "Mimetic Analogies among African Butterflies,"
in the Transactions of the Linnaean Society, for 1868, he has argued
strongly in favour of Mr. Bates' views as to the higher position of the
Danaidae and the lower grade of the Papilionidae, and has adduced, among
other facts, the undoubted resemblance of the pupa of Parnassius, a
genus of Papilionidae, to that of some Hesperidae and moths. I admit,
therefore, that he has proved the Papilionidae to have retained several
characters of the nocturnal Lepidoptera which the Danaidae have lost, but
I deny that they are therefore to be considered lower in the scale of
organization. Other characters may be pointed out which indicate that
they are farther removed from the moths even than the Danaidae. The club
of the antennae is the most prominent and most constant feature by which
butterflies may be distinguished from moths, and of all butterflies the
Papilionidae have the most beautiful and most perfectly developed clubbed
antennae. Again, butterflies and moths are broadly characterised by their
diurnal and nocturnal habits respectively, and the Papilionidae, with
their close allies the Pieridae, are the most pre-eminently diurnal of
butterflies, most of them lovers of sunshine, and not presenting a
single crepuscular species. The great group of the Nymphalidae, on the
other hand (in which Mr. Bates includes the Danaidae and Heliconidae as
sub-families), contains an entire sub-family (Brassolidae) and a number
of genera, such as Thaumantis, Zeuxidia, Pavonia, &c., of crepuscular
habits, while a large proportion of the Satyridae and many of the
Danaidae are shade-loving butterflies. This question, of what is to be
considered the highest type of any group of organisms, is one of such
general interest to naturalists that it will be wel