ER) 
VI. Strepsiptera, a new Order of Insects proposed ; and the Cha- 
racters of the Order, with those of its Genera, laid down. By the 
Rev. William Kirby, F.L.S. 
Read March 19, 1811. 
Wiuzx we consider the vast number of non-descript species, 
with which, since Linné gave the last finish to his System of En- 
tomology, the European cabinets of insects have been inun- 
dated, it seems remarkable that few or none have hitherto been 
discovered which will not arrange under some one or other of his 
orders : for although Olivier, and after him Latreille and the best 
. modern entomologists, following the illustrious Baron De GETS 
have very properly made a distinct order of such of the Linnean 
Hemipterous genera, as instead of a rostrum are furnished with 
the instruments of mastication, namely, the old genera Blatta, 
Mantis and Gryllust; yet this change was not so much the con- 
sequence 
* De Geer was the first who separated the insects to which I allude from the rest of the 
Hemiptera, and he gave them the name of Dermaptera, a name not improper, and : 
which in justice to him should have been retained. They are the Orthoptera of Olivier &c. - 
and constitute the seventh class of the second order of De Geer's first general class. See ` 
Mem. tom. vii. tableau general facing p. 862. Recapitulation de l’ Arrangement, ®c. - 
ibid. p. 759. and also tom. iii. Mem. 9. p. 399. 
f The genus Forficula Linn. is also by the above authors arranged with the Orthoptera, 
and 
