126 



HAftDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



|_June 1, 1870. 



have a close connection with it; further, in the 

 " Odyssey," book ix., we learn that the lotus- 

 eaters incurred oblivion. I think we again find the 

 same idea in A>?0»j, the waters of oblivion. 



And, perhaps, for, berree, and for-choonee, Eastern 

 words for the fruit of different kinds of lotus-trees, 

 are analogues of our word " berry." 



To conclude: I can only just indicate the re- 

 ference to Ovid's "Metamorphoses," ix. 324, 

 where he recounts the transformation of the nymph 

 Lotis into a water-plant of the same name, which 

 produces berries, when she was fleeing from 

 Priapus (Fable iv.). 



April 25th, 1870. Arthur Hall. 



WINGLESS INSECTS* 



"IVTAY I be allowed a small space for a friendly 

 JJLL gossip, to which Dr. White has invited me, 

 in preference to my communication with the above 

 title. First, I must thank him for correcting an 

 error. I inadvertently stated that the female Fumea 

 is legless : this is not the case ; that defect is con- 

 fined to the two genera Psyche and Sterrhopteryx. 

 I cordially agree with Dr. White as to the desir- 

 ability of a liberal allowance of orders in the insect 

 class ; and I may state, en passant, that for my own 

 use, I employ no less than eighteen. Still, writing 

 popularly in an essentially popular journal — for 

 Science-Gossip, though scientific in the best sense 

 of the term, islnevertheless Gossip, and meant to 

 afford reading to all sorts and conditions of men — 

 I thought it better to adopt as simple a method of 

 classification as possible. There are many readers to 

 whom a curious episode in the life-history of insects 

 is agreeable, but who esteem the repetition of.tech- 

 nicalities and hard names an unmitigated bore, 

 however useful and intelligible they may be to the 

 practical entomologist. Here let me introduce a 

 small anecdote of a great man. Von Bismarck was 

 not long ago present at a ball in Berlin, given on 

 the occasion of the opening of some public institu- 

 tion. On entering the ball-room, the first person 

 on whom his eye fell was his own tailor. "Ah, 

 Herr Schneider," he said good-naturedly, "what 

 sort of a ball are you having ? " " Pretty good, 

 your excellency," answered the flattered tailor ; 

 "pretty good, but sadly mixed— sadly mixed." 

 " Very likely," observed Bismarck ; " for you know, 

 my dear Schneider, we can't be all tailors " ! 



The moral is, that in so mixed an assembly as 

 the readers of Science-Gossip, all probably are not 

 savants and entomologists, I therefore adopted the 

 simplest of the many systems in vogue — that of 

 Burmeister, adding only a "single order, the Strep- 



* Science-Gossip, vi. pp. 49, 105. 



siptera. Now Burmeister (who is, I believe, still 

 living — he was a very few years ago), as great a 

 man in entomology as Bismarck in politics, includes 

 Dr. White's pet horror, the louse, in his hemi- 

 pterous order. Had I been writing solely for purely 

 scientific readers, I should have placed it with the 

 Biiinopters of Dumeril. But if I am supposed to 

 be joking in the use of an expression anent legless 

 larva, surely Dr. White must be indulging in the 

 same irreverent practice when he wishes to erase 

 the louse from the list of entomozoa, and to shut it 

 out in the cold ! Pediculus " probably not an insect 

 at all " ! What then, in the name of science, can 

 it be ? I believe an insect to be an animal whose 

 body is divided into three segments, with two an- 

 tennse and six feet. Pediculus fulfils this definition 

 exactly, and if it is excluded, I know not what we 

 are to retain underlie title of insect. [I do not, I con- 

 fess, in spite of Leach's great authority and Denny's 

 admirable monograph, believe in the hybrid order 

 Anoplura, any more than I do in the more ancient 

 Aptera, under which Pediculus once figured. For 

 the purpose of my paper, therefore, I ranged the 

 Pediculids in the Hemiptera, and the Mallophaga 

 and Thysanura in the Orthoptera, on account of the 

 structure of their mouth-organs. As to the use of 

 vernacular in conjunction with scientific names, I 

 am only acting up to the wishes of the editor, as 

 every contributor to a periodical should do. See 

 " Notices to Correspondents," p. 120 : " Wherever 

 scientific names or technicalities are employed, it 

 is hoped that the common names will accompany 

 them!'' Whether the term " Chimney-sweep " is 

 applied to any other moth I know not, but I can 

 quote two authorities in favour of its being given 

 (as I have given it) to Fumea ; viz., Stephens's Cata- 

 logue, ii. 57, and N. Humphrey's Genera, p. 34. 

 As to the other supposed misnomer, is Dr. White 

 aware that Stephens's genus Anisopteryx includes 

 Latreille's llybernia leucopluearia ? 



One word respecting Wallace's Trichondyla and 

 its place in the system. I do not "think that it 

 should be removed from the Cicindelida; and placed 

 among the Carabidse;" but I do think, as I stated, 

 in effect, though not in so many words, that both 

 these tribes (Cicindelids and Carabids) are subor- 

 dinate to, and form sections of, the great family of 

 Carabini. 



Havre. W. W. Spicer. 



Quekett Microscopical Club.— The Annual 

 Excursion Dinner is fixed to take place at Leather- 

 head on the 23rd of June, for which tickets are 

 ready, and may be had from any member of the 

 Excursion Committee. Many members of the club 

 afterwards regretted their absence from the last 

 dinner ; let them take care to prevent such a regret 

 this time. 



