Abstract
THE satisfactory classification of Lepidoptera has always been regarded as one of the most difficult problems in entomology, and many authors (chiefly English and American) have recently been working at the subject, and trying to throw fresh light upon it from the supposed lines of descent of the insects, and from a critical and comparative study of their earlier stages. It is, however, somewhat to be regretted that most of the systems follow very different lines, and therefore arrive at very divergent results. This is only the consequence of the now generally recognised impossibility of arranging natural objects in a linear series which shall represent their real affinities; and in due time we may hope that some compromise may be arrived at, which will reconcile the opposing systems so far as to lead to a fairly satisfactory and uniform result.
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New Works on the Classification of Lepidoptera1. Nature 55, 536–537 (1897). https://doi.org/10.1038/055536a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/055536a0