120 Benj. D. Walsh on Prof. Dana 



pairs of wings assist in locomotion." (Introd. I. p. 12.) It is true 

 there are a few exceptions to the general rule, one of which is the 

 very anomalous Forjicula family, which, although it differs so widely 

 from all other Orthoptera, that most British and some Continental 

 authors place it in an Order by itself, Dana has united with the Blatta 

 family in a group of equal value with that very natural oue composed 

 of the Crickets, Catydids and Grasshoppers ; and another is the genus 

 Tetrix among the Grasshoppers, which has mere abbreviated scales in 

 the place of front wings. No experienced Entomologist, however, 

 needs to be told, that there is scarcely a single rule iu the science 

 without its exceptions. In Coleoptera, it is true, the elytra are not, so far 

 as is known, used at all iu flight, and some of them, e. g. Cetonia and 

 its allies, do not even lift their elytra off their backs when they fly, as 

 was observed long ago. But although this is true of Coleoptera, it is, 

 with a very few exceptions, positively untrue of Orthoptera. in spite 

 of Prof. Dana's dictum ex cathedra, " the anterior wings in the * * 

 Orthopters are not flying wings." 



Hence, even according to the interpretation now put forth by Prof. 

 Dana of his term " Elytropters," viz: that, before we can determine 

 the relative grade of two Orders of Insects, we must see them 

 actually fly and see how far " the posterior wings are the main 

 flying wings," and not be guided by such " mere external character- 

 istics, of no dynamical value," as : ' the fact of the fore-wings being 

 coriaceous wholly, in part, or not at all," which fact is dogmatically 

 asserted to have "no bearing whatever on the question" (p. 167,) 

 — even, I say, according to this interpretation of Prof. Dana's term 

 •• Elytropters," under which he classifies, 1st. Coleoptera, 2nd He- 

 teroptera, 3rd Orthoptera, the Orthoptera must be, as I originally 

 asserted, (p. 241) superior on his own principles to the Coleoptera, 

 instead of vice versa as asserted by him. For in Orthoptera the 

 front wings are generally used in flight, in Coleoptera they are not ; 

 and consequently in the former the hind wings are less exclusively 

 " the main flying wings" than they are in the latter. In fact Prof. 

 Dana seems to have had a latent consciousness of this himself; for 

 he entirely evades in the passage just now referred to the question of 

 the relative superiority of Coleoptera and Orthoptera, and flies off at 

 a tangent to the question of the relative superiority of his " Pros- 

 themes" and " Metasthenics." 



If we compare the front wings of even those Orthoptera where 

 they are the most thickened and coriaceous, e. g. Blatta, Acheta or 



