The Rev. Wm. Kırgr on a new Order of Insects. 101 
them, led doubtless by the single circumstance of the larvae 
being parasites in a living insect. But this is certainly not a suf- 
ficient reason for placing them in this order, since Musca larvarum 
and other Diptera, whose larve also inhabit living insects, might 
on the same account be placed in it. The wings should be con- 
sidered as to their situation, substance, figure, folding and veins. 
With respect to the first, situation, they are inserted at a much 
greater distance from the point of attachment of the elytra than 
takes place in any of the other elytrophorous insects: in sub- 
stance they are very similar to those of many of the Hemiptera, a 
little thicker than in Coleoptera and Orthoptera, where the wings. 
are pure membrane. In shape the wings approach to. those of 
Orthoptera, being, as nearly as may be, a quadrant of a circle*: 
in this respect they differ considerably from Coleoptera, the wings. 
in this last order being usually semicordate or semiovate. "They 
fold longitudinally, in which circumstance they likewise agree 
with Orthoptera., In Coleoptera there is commonly an oblique 
fold at the base, where a portion: of the inner part of the wing 
laps underneath, and a transverse fold in the middle or near be: 
apex}. ‘The veining of the wings is very simple; a few longitu- 
dinal diverging nerves constitute the whole apparatus necessary 
to keep these ample wings sufficiently extended for the insect's. 
purposes; in. this they somewhat resemble .the eoleopterous — 
genera Hister, Necrophorus, and the Staphylinida, (though in these 
the veining is rather more complex,) but are quite different from. 
the Orthoptera, the wings of all the genera in that order, when. 
Forficula is excluded, having numerous longitudinal veins crossed. 
* Taz, VIII. fig. 15. gg. 
t This takes place even in Molorchus, whose wings are very little covered by the elytra 
but in some Buprestides ( B. vittata), the transverse fold seems not to take place... See also 
De Geer, tom..iv. p..125.. 
alternatel y 
