94 The Rev. Wir. Kırzy on a new Order of Insects. 
exuvie of the Xenos remaining in them, and are nevertheless 
sufficiently active. Perhaps the time this insect remains in 
the larva state is very short, and the thorax of the wasp not 
being attacked by it, may be the reason why it escapes with 
life. 
Having given the above abstract of the observations of Pro- 
fessor Peck and Rossi on this tribe of insects, I shall now assign, 
more in detail, the reasons which have induced me to consider 
the genera of which it is composed as belonging to a new order, 
beginning with their preparatory states ; for, if we would ascer- 
tain this point legitimately with respect to any description of 
insects, a due share of attention and weight ought to be allowed 
to the metamorphosis ; for although I would not, with Swam- 
merdam, Lyonet, and Bonnet, build a system solely on this 
foundation, (since this, in some cases, would unite in the same 
order insects that are widely different in their perfect state, and 
separate those that are nearly related *,) at the same time, taken 
in conjunction with the characters of the perfect insect, it is 
often of great use in ascertaining the order to which any genus 
belongs. In having recourse to it certain rules, for the proper 
application of it, should be laid down and adhered to: I will 
venture to lay before the Linnean Society some that appear to 
me open to little or no objection. 
Rute I. When an insect, in its perfect state, combines the cha- 
racters of two or more orders, (unless it be deemed adviseable to place 
it in an order by itself, ) it should arrange with those whose metamor- 
phosis is the same. 
Example.—Forficula exhibits the characters both of Colcepfetu 
* Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, some Neuroptera and Diptera agree in their metamor- 
“phosis, and again Culex, Tipula Linn. &c. are widely separated in this respect from those 
of that order whose metamorphosis is coarctate. 
Ee 
