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ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



The subdivision of the order into the three suborders Parasita, 

 Homoptera, and Heteroptera, with the Parasita placed as the 

 lowest, while possibly representing the comparative rank in organ 

 ization, is entirely unfounded in phylogeny, and it seems to me 

 that the proper relationship of these suborders is to place the 

 Homoptera as the first division, as it includes the more general 

 ized types, and the Heteroptera as the secondary division, and to 

 consider the Parasita as simply a degraded branch of the Hete 

 roptera, having its origin near the group of families represented 

 by the Acanthiidae. Such a view as to the Parasita is, indeed, 

 expressed by Uhler, though not adopted in his classification.* 

 With reference to the generalized features of the Homoptera as 

 compared with the Heteroptera, it may be objected that such 

 specialized forms as contained in some of the families should out 

 rank the Heteroptera. The wing structure being certainly of a 

 more primitive type, and the position of the head, while in some 

 cases apparently very much specialized, seems to me, on the whole, 

 to correspond more nearly with the generalized Orthoptera and 

 Pseudoneuroptera, or, it might be said, also with the Physopoda, 

 which possibly is the modern representative of the ancestral form 

 of Hemiptera. The development of the scutellum in Heterop 

 tera may be looked upon as of importance, and the horizontal 

 position of the head, with the beak arising anteriorly, while it 

 may appear at first sight to be more generalized, will, I think, 

 from careful comparison with other groups, be recognized as the 

 derivative form. The relationship of these special divisions I 

 would represent by the following diagram : 



In the division of Homoptera the current system of placing the 

 Coccidae as the lowest, and, presumably, the simplest group, is 

 certainly a wide departure from the facts as apparent in the com 

 parative study of the groups. If we separate the division Homop 

 tera into two subdivisions, Sternorhynchi and Auchenorhynchi, 



*Stand. Nat. Hist., vol. ii, p. 209. 



