Cases of the second kind are found among the Lepidopterous families,
and especially in the higher groups (_Rhopalocera_ and _Heterocera_),
and appear still more striking in the higher groups of the Hymenoptera
and Diptera. Thus the caterpillar shaped and maggot-formed larvæ of
the Hymenoptera differ from one another to a much greater extent
than their imagines, since the latter have experienced a complete
transformation of typical parts; whilst in the caterpillar-formed larvæ
these parts vary only within moderate limits. Similarly in the case
of the Diptera, of which the gnat-like larvæ diverge more widely from
those of the grub type than do the gnats from the true flies. On the
other hand the divergence between the imagines of the fleas and gnats
is considerably greater than that between their larvæ--indeed the larvæ
of the fleas would have to be ranked as a family of the sub-order of
the gnat-like larvæ if we wished to carry out a larval classification.
By this it is also made evident that these unequal divergences, when
they occur in the higher systematic groups, always induce at the same
time the second form of incongruence--that of the formation of unequal
systematic groups.
In general whenever such unequal divergences occur in the higher groups
they run parallel with a strong deviation in the conditions of life.
If these differ more strongly on the side of the larvæ, we find that
the structure of the latter likewise diverges the more widely, and that
their form-relationship is in consequence made more remote (saw-flies
and ichneumons, gnats and flies); if, on the other hand, the difference
in the conditions of life is greater on the side of the imagines,
we find among the latter the greater morphological divergence
(butterflies and moths, gnats and fleas).
(2.) The second chief form of incongruence consists in the formation
of different systematic groups by the larvæ and the imagines, if the
latter are grouped simply according to their form-relationship without
reference to their genetic affinities. This incongruence again shows
itself in two forms--in the formation of groups of unequal value, and
the formation of groups equal in value but unequal in extent, _i.e._ of
overlapping instead of coinciding groups.
Of these two forms the first arises as the direct result of a different
amount of divergence. Thus the larvæ of the fleas, on account of their
small divergence from those of the gnats, could only lay claim to the
rank of a _family_, whilst their imagines are separated from the gnats
by such a wide form-divergence that they are correctly ranked as a
distinct _tribe_ or _sub-order_.
The inequalities in the lowest groups, varieties, can be regarded in a
precisely similar manner. If the larva of a species has become split up
into two local forms, but not the imago, each of the two larval forms
possesses only the rank of a _variety_, whilst the imaginal form has
the value of a _species_.
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