92 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



poda) . That there could be any derivative relationship between 

 a group of animals with the reproductive system opening in the 

 anterior part of the body (Progoneata) and others with the reverse 

 arrangement ^Opisthogoneata) seemed impossible, unless the 

 common origin were traced back to worms with unspecialized 

 reproductive segments. Should the present suggestion prove to 

 have a foundation in fact, we shall have firmer ground for believ 

 ing that the insects and the four classes commonly grouped as 

 44 Myriapods" do in reality constitute a natural assemblage.* 



Nor do the possibilities of integration end here, since the asso 

 ciation of the Progoneata with the insects as derivatives of an 

 originally aquatic group reopens the whole question of their affini 

 ties with the Crustacea and Arachnida, and may result in the 

 rehabilitation of the Arthropoda as a natural phylum or primary 

 division of the animal kingdom. 



The paper was discussed briefly by Messrs. Simpson, Gill 

 and Stiles. Mr. Simpson said that Prof. Comstock had given 

 serious consideration to the theory that the primitive and original 

 insects were aquatic and winged, but had finally abandoned it as 

 untenable. Ke had noted that the tracheal gills of certain May 

 flies are of almost the same pattern as the wing veins. This 

 similarity, however, he had found to be accidental. Dr. Gill said 

 he thought that there was no ground for believing that insects were 

 derived from myriapods. There was a possibility, however, that 

 they had sprung from an entomostracan type, though this was 

 merely an hypothesis. Insects may have existed in paheozoic times, 

 but there was no evidence of it. He maintained that flying-fish 

 do not have a true flight, but that their enormously enlarged pec 

 toral fins serve merely as parachutes for their sustentation in the 

 air until the initial momentum of the fish leaving the water is 

 exhausted. 



Prof. Cook, however, maintained that certain of the flying-fish 

 really progress through the air by a rapid vibration of the 

 wings. He spoke of the resemblance of some geologic Crus 

 tacea to the Iarva3 of certain species of cockroaches as of inter 

 est and suggestive. 



* For this the name Labrata was proposed in 18^6 (Brandtia, p. 30). 

 he Labrata were deemed co-ordinate with tl 

 Crustacea) and the Malacopoda (Peripatus). 



