CHIEF ENTOMOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATIONS AND SYSTEMS. 603 



This system, which cannot be called a purely artificial one, as it is 

 founded upon several principles of division, is yet deficient in its object 

 as a natural one ; the second and third orders are falsely separated, 

 although a division of the Linneean Neuroptera was desirable ; the 

 fifth must be again united with the seventh, and the tenth belongs as 

 an integral portion to both ; the twelfth and thirteenth, however, are 

 both an intermixture of the most distinct creatures, and the fourteenth 

 cannot make claim to be very natural. 



341. 



Twelve years (1764) after De Geer's subdivision, a French naturalist 

 of the name of Geoffrey stepped forth as a systematist, where hitherto 

 Englishmen and Swedes had for half a century alone presented them- 

 selves. Indeed, the French had not been idle during this time, to prove 

 which we have merely to refer to the labours of Reaumur ; but they 

 had not yet presented themselves as systematists, which is the more 

 remarkable, as their countrymen subsequently have been most active 

 in this branch of natural inquiry. Geoffrey's system, which, exclusive 

 of other points, is important from the introduction of the joints of the 

 tarsi as points of division, has fewer groups than any of the earlier 

 ones, namely, only the following six. 



I. Coleoplera. Mandibles and hard anterior wings. They are 



divided into 



1. Those with hard entire elytra. 



2. Those with hard half elytra. And 



3. Those with soft membranous elytra (the Hemiptera of 



De Geer). 



Each of these groups is subdivided from the number of the 

 joints of the tarsi, in four or five lower groups. 



II. Hemiptera. Sucking oral organs and half hard anterior wings. 



III. Lepidoptera. Same as Linnaeus. 



IV. Tetraptera. Four naked membranous wings. 



. Feet three jointed (Libellula, Semblis}. 



b. Feet four jointed (Rhaphidia). 



c. Feet five jointed (Ephemera, Phryganea, Hemcrobius, 



Myrmecoleon, and the Hymenoptera of Linnaeus). 



V. Diptera. The same as Linnaeus. 



VI. Aplera. The same as Linnaeus. 



From whatever point of view we regard this .system, it is equally unna 



