[Fedora Robotics] Tion of "similar conditions of existence" f

[Carlsley Woolworth]

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 gene