80 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



Under the head of "Short Notes and Exhibition of Speci 

 mens," Mr. Ashmead showed the agamous female of Beleno- 

 cnema treatce Mayr. The true sexual generation consists of 

 winged males and females issuing from galls on the roots of live 

 oak, while the agamous generation consists of subapterous fe 

 males issuing from a gall which occurs on the leaves. Mr. Ash- 

 mead has connected the two galls simply from the study of 

 structural characters. 



Mr. Howard exhibited a peculiar Coccid received from Mr. 

 Otoji Takahashi, of Tokio, Japan. It occurs upon a Ligustrum 

 and in such masses and with so much wax that the surface of 

 the twig is completely covered. The insects are immature forms 

 of some Lecaniine. 



Dr. Smith presented a communication, of which the fol- 

 owing is an abstract : 



A CLASSIFICATION OF THE ORDERS OF INSECTS. 

 By J. B. SMITH. 

 [Author's Abstract.*] 



The speaker proposes to divide the true Insecta primarily into 

 two series upon the character of the mouth-parts, making one a 

 suctorial type, to contain the orders Thysanura and Rhyngota. 

 All the others are mandibulate in some stage of their existence. 

 These mandibulata he divides into three other series according to 

 the development of the prothorax. In one case the prothorax is 

 entirely free in the adult and this series contains the Dermaptera 

 &\\&Coleoptera, in which the hind wings are transversely folded, 

 and the Plecoptera, Platyptera, and Orthoptera, in which the 

 hind wings are longitudinally folded beneath the primaries. 



The second series is that in which the prothorax is fairly well 

 developed, but is quite closely attached at its base to the other 

 segments and is not freely movable as in the case of the first series. 

 In this branch, which was terrestrial from the start, are included 

 the Isoptera, Mattophaga, Corrodentia, and Neuroptera. 



The third series had the prothorax reduced in size from the 

 beginning, and always united to the other thoracic segments, 

 the general tendency being towards a complete loss of function 

 of all save the legs in this part. All the members of this series 

 are from an aquatic form, and they include the O don at a ^ 



*The paper is published in SCIENCE (2), vol. 5, 1897, pp. 671-677. 



