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IV. The Developmental Characters of the Larvae of the
Noctuae as determining the Position of that Group.
By Raphael Meldola, F.C.S., V.P.E.S., &c.
[Read March 26th, 1881.]
I am induced to bring a few remarks on the above subject
under the notice of the Club, because we have among us a
large number of Lepidopterists to whom these observations
may be of use, from the twofold point of view of suggesting a
fruitful line of work for those who are in the habit of larva
breeding, and, on the other hand, as having some bearing on
the actual cabinet arrangement at present adopted by many
of our collectors.
Among the many classes of biological facts that have
received an explanation by the publication of Darwin's
'Origin of Species,' the phenomena of embryology, or the
development of the individual organism from the germ to a
state of maturity, are of the highest importance as revealing
in many cases the history and true affinities of groups of
species. In the course of its development an animal passes
through stages which successively represent, with more or
less completeness, the stages through which the species has
passed in arriving at its present condition. The development
of the individual is in this sense spoken of as the "ontogeny,"
and the development of the race is known as the "phylogeny."
In accordance with the Darwinian theory all the species of
one group, such as a genus, have descended from a common
ancestor, so that all the species of such a group would be
expected to approach each other more closely in their
characters at certain stages of their ontogeny than when
adult, or, as Haeckel has expressed it, the ontogeny recapitu-
lates the phylogeny with more or less falsification, owing
to the necessary abbreviation of the successive stages. By
comparing the ontogeny of allied species and groups of