PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 121 



series of added genera and species, could not perpetuate names encumbered 

 with such disadvantages ; and if at the present day an able Danish entomo- 

 logist has adopted them, reformed in orthography, we may be disposed to respect 

 Schioedte's patriotic predilections more than to commend his aesthetic judgment. 

 The Linnean orders, and their names, with some necessary modification in the 

 number and limits, seem destined to hold their place, as far as we can foresee from 

 our present position. The very names of the orders seemed to presage a step, since 

 accomplished, in the dissolution of the order Aptera, which rested on the want of 

 the organs designated as the primary character in the arrangement of the class. 

 Accordingly, all the Polypods, with Cancer, have been long severed as the class 

 Crustacea, and the Octopods as Arachnida. Of the hexapod genera remaining, 

 Termes found its place among the winged orders, even according to the judgment 

 of the most obsequious followers of the Linnean method, as soon as the history of the 

 race was known. Only Pulex and Pediculus, Lepisma and Podura, then were left ; 

 and these also have been since assigned respectively to their places (not yet undis- 

 puted) among the winged orders, which now embrace the whole class of insects 

 under six great sections, with at most some small groups, whose position is inter- 

 mediate, or yet undetermined, as some consider. These are, according to the 

 nomenclature most generally received, Coleoptera, Hemiptera, Lepidoptera, 

 Neuroptera, Hymenoptera, Diptera. For the fourth of these, as enlarged much 

 beyond the Linnean sense, Burmeister has framed a new name, Gymnognatha. 

 But this change seems needless, while it infringes on the consistent harmony of the 

 whole. The order comprises the whole of the Linnean Neuroptera, increased only 

 by some apterous forms, and by a group whose affinity Linneus himself confessed 

 doubtful, by implication, when he referred them first to one and then to another 

 order. On these grounds we retain the names Coleoptera, Trichopterygidas } Tri- 

 chopteryx, in our enumeration of the Irish species of the family. 



The species marked with an asterisk before the number have been found in 

 Britain, but not yet observed in Ireland. 



Gen. 1. PTENIDIUM, Erichson ; Redtenbacher ; Wollaston ; Faune Fran9aise ; 

 p., Motschoulsky Trichoptcryx p., Kirby ; Heer ; Gillmeister ; Mannerheim ; 

 Mots. ; Alibert. Anisarthria p., Stephens. 



1. punctatum, Gyllenhall ; Woll. ; Fn.Fr. alutaceum, Gilm. littorale, Mots. 

 Common about dunghills ; also on fuci and zosterse drying on the shore, the 

 larva occurring with the perfect insect. 



2. apicale, Sturm. ; Er. ; Gilm. ; Redt. ; Fn.Fr. ; Woll. perpusillum, melas, 

 Marsham ; Steph. nitidum, Steph. evanescens, Heer ; Mots. punctatum, elon- 

 gatulum, myrmecophilum, Mots. Var. fuscicorne, Er. obscuricorne, Mots. 

 Common about dunghills, and among fallen leaves, &c. 



*3. IcBvigatum, Er. punctula, Steph. (?) 



4. pusillum, Gyll. ; Er. ; Gilm. ; Redt. ; Fn.Fr. minutissimum, Steph. 

 nitidum, Heer. -foveolatum, Alib. Not rare, with the second. 



Gen. 2. NOSSIDIUM, Er. ; Fn.Fr. Anisarthria, Mots. ; p., Steph. Ptilium p., 

 Redt. 



1. pilosellum, Marsh. ; Steph. ; Er. ; Fn.Fr. nitidulum, brunneum, Marsh. ; 

 Steph.; -ferrarii, Redt. Very rare, on rotten stumps. 



Gen. 3. PTILIUM, Er. ; Redt.; Fn.Fr. p. Heer; Comolli. Trichopteryx 

 p., Steph. ; Mots. ; Alib. ; Gilm. ; Mann. Ptinella, Micrus, Ptenidium p., 

 Mots. 



