96 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



sisted by Francis Willoughby (1635-1672). This work was 

 somewhat revised and republished in full with appendix by 

 Lister in 1710. His k ' Methodus Insectorum" appeared in Lon 

 don in 1705. 



Ray's classification in the "Historia Insectorum" was based, 

 as already indicated, on Swammerdam's, which he followed very 

 closely, adopting the four general classes of the latter, and differ 

 ing only in some of the subdivisions which he carried out in 

 considerable detail. The important divergence is in class III, 

 which Ray subdivided into two sections, one for Coleoptera and 

 the other the anelytra, which latter is subdivided into the scaly 

 wings or Lepidoptera and the membranaceous winged insects 

 or some Diptera and most Hymenoptera. 



The only other classifier of the period is Antonio Vallisnieri 

 (1661-1730), a celebrated professor of Padua, a physician and 

 naturalist, and the author of many short papers, and especially 

 of a new idea for the general classification of insects, based on 

 habits.* He divides them into four principal classes, with avast 

 number of subdivisions under each class. His principal divis 

 ions are as follows : i , insects inhabiting plants and nourished 

 by plants; 2, water or fluid insects; 3, insects inhabiting soil, 

 sand, mud, stones, and bones of dead animals ; 4, insects sub 

 sisting in or on other living animals. As an example of his 

 subdivisions, his class I has 42 subsections, each of which is 

 again more or less numerously subdivided. 



Reaumur's own classification, if it may be called such, was 

 based altogether on habits and dealt prominently with whatever 

 stages, whether larval or adult, chanced to be the most apt to 

 come under observation. In other words, he associated insects 

 together and described them as he found them in nature, and as 

 his purpose was not to enumerate species and genera, but to give 

 the habits of common species and to facilitate the identification 

 of whatever form happened to be most noticeable, the classifica 

 tion which he adopted was well suited for his purpose. 



Of the general writers of this period, two are especially 

 worthy of mention ; one of these, Filipo Bonanni, a Jesuit pro- 



* E$perietize ed osservaziont intorne all' ortgine sviluppi e costumt di 

 varii insetti. 1713. Padua. 



