THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 135 



FURTHER ON THE DIPTERA CONSIDERED AS THE 



HIGHEST INSECTS. 



BY C. H. TYLER TOWNSEND, LAS CRUCES, NEW MEXICO. 



In my article in Canadian Entomologist, 1893, PP- 7-8, as also in my 

 previous note in Science, Vol. XIX., 1882, p. 320. I stated that Hyatt and 

 Arms were the first to point out that the Diptera were the most highly 

 specialized insects, and consequently to be considered the highest in 

 rank. It should be noted, however, that the same idea was advanced at 

 the same time by the renowned insect anatomist, Mr. B. T. Lowne, well 

 known for his work on the anatomy, etc., of the blow-fly. In part I. of 

 this work, Oct., 1890, p. 25, Lowne says: — "The blow-flies belong to the 

 family Muscidce, one of the most highly specialized groups of the Diptera, 

 the most highly specialized order of the class Insecta." 



On pp. 26-7, he further says: — "Just as all discussion would be 

 futile as to whether a bird or a mammal is the higher type, so it is useless 

 to consider whether the Diptera or the Hymenoptera have the higher 

 organization ; but there can be no question as to which of these orders 

 departs most from the more generalized form. The Diptera are far more 

 remarkable in their developmental history, and in the modification of 

 structure which they present in the adult or imago form. In this 

 relation the strong tendency of many to produce their young alive, and 

 the fact that some have a capacious matrix, or uterus, in which the larvae 

 are hatched, or even attain the pupa form, before birth, is not without 

 interest, presenting as it does some analogy with the viviparous character 

 of the mammalia amongst vertebrates — whilst the nest-building instincts 

 are more manifest in Hymenoptera and in birds. [This is an important 

 analogy, and well pointed out. — C. H. T. T. j It is true that the flies, 

 and more especially the heavy forms, with a comparatively tardy flight, 

 like the blow-fly, have been regarded as ' stupid ' — Sprengel called them 

 ' die duramen Fliegen ' — and do not excite our sympathy and curiosity to 

 the same extent as the social Hymenoptera ; but it is impossible to judge 

 of the intellectual functions of an insect. The manner in which the blow, 

 flies and their near allies, the house-flies, have made themselves at home 



