101 



Lyg&ida) " exhibits, in an eminent degree, the ordinary 

 occurrence of an imperfect perfect-state; whilst indi- 

 viduals are occasionally found with fully developed organs 

 of flight*"- Lyceus brevipennis, Lat., also ordinarily 

 occurs with abbreviated hemelytra; but it has been 

 found with them perfect by Westwood, as well as with 

 metathoracic wings. 



None of the above examples however would appear to 

 do more than refer to the alary instability of the Insecta, 

 as a matter of fact ; but this is all for which we are now 

 contending,, the preceding chapter having been in part 

 devoted to some of the presumptive causes of it. Whether 

 the specimens of Oncocephalus griseus, to which Spinola 

 called attention, were insular ones, I cannot say ; but he 

 seems to have noted an example in which an opposite 

 phenomenon to those which Mr. Westwood has cited, 

 was displayed, and moreover to have speculated on the 

 conditions producing it, when he suggests : " L'influence 

 du climat septentrional parait avoir arrete le developpe- 

 ment des organes du volf." And, again, when com- 

 menting upon the other tendency in a representative of 

 the Reduviadce, he says (' Essai/ p. 96) : " Je pense qne 

 la presence des ailes et leur developpement dependent 

 du climat." Whilst treating of two British species of 

 the same family, Mr. Westwood observes : " The Pro- 

 stemma guttula, Fab., and Coranus subapterus, Curt., are 

 interesting on account of their being generally found in 



* Introduction to the Modern Classification of Insects, ii. p. 480. 

 f Essai, p. 103. 



