HOPKINS: EVOLUTION 129 



as some educators have inferred, but is a result of the sympedic 

 state, the premature association of the children with each other, 

 and the lessening of contacts with parents and elders. 



EVOLUTION. — The story of evolution as revealed by a scolytid 

 beetle. Andrew D. Hopkins. 



If the principle of evolution has the broad application we 

 believe it to have, one should find in any individual form of life, 

 as for example, a scolytid beetle, some evidences of its origin, 

 some records of the more important events and progressive 

 changes in its line of descent and of its near and remote relation- 

 ship to other forms. 



A review of this evidence and the facts made available by the 

 living beetle shows that its body is composed of organic elements, 

 that it is rendered active by the element of life, and that in this 

 and other evidences of its relationship to organic and inorganic 

 nature there is proof of universal unity. In its development from 

 an organic unit or mother cell it has furnished some of the evi- 

 dences of its line of descent from a simple protozoid source to a 

 complex metazoid form, from a simple vermiform type to a com- 

 plex larval-form type, and thence thru radical changes and trans- 

 formations to the adult, so that the development of the individual 

 indicates the processes in the development and evolution of the 

 race. It suggests that, since all organisms develop from a prim- 

 itive cell, all existing forms of life have evolved from a common 

 unicellular base. It also indicates that each major division of the 

 various classes of animals and plants have descended thru more 

 or less direct and independent lines of divergence from a primi- 

 tive mass rather than from pairs of individuals. 



This scolytid beetle represents, in its structural characters, the 

 order Coleoptera, suborder Rhynchophora, superfamily Scoly- 

 toidae, family Scolytidae, genus Scolytus, and species scolytus. 

 Thus, it belongs to a great coordinate system, and in its combina- 

 tion of elements of structure and vital and social activities it 

 manifests the fundamental processes, principles, and laws under 

 which it is enabled to exist as a unit of this system. 



Therefore, we do find in the individual beetle much of the story 



