516 A CENTURY OF PROGRESS IN THE NATURAL SCIENCES 



continued and expanded liis interest to a world-wide scope. His Taxonomic 

 Notes on the Order Emhioptera which appeared in twenty parts (1939-1940) 

 was based on a study of the types of many species. Unfortunately the pressure 

 of approaching military service caused him to do this work more hastily than 

 desirable. 



At the present time less than 300 species of Embioptera are known. There 

 is evidence, however, that the order may eventually prove to comprise about 

 1,000 species. The writer feels this challenge is worth a lifetime of concentrated 

 study. He is now making field trips to various parts of the world with the prin- 

 cipal purpose of collecting and observing these insects. The discovery and de- 

 scrii^tion of hundreds of new species necessary before the basic classification can 

 be fully developed, will take a long time. Semiarid regions, such as parts of 

 Mexico and Africa which are biotically related to adjacent humid tropical re- 

 gions, are proving particularly rich in species. Burma, an eastern frontier in 

 the dispersal of the large family Embiidae (centered in Africa), should be 

 visited by an embiopterist. 



All future studies must include a very detailed exposition of male abdominal 

 terminalia characters. The writer's current studies in African and New World 

 species indicate, however, that these characters may at times serve only to define 

 species or racial groups whose members are separable on more superficial fea- 

 tures, such as size, color, and minor details in form. 



As the Embioptera become well sampled, the difficulty of defining species is 

 certain to increase. Generic concepts, so dependent on the consistency of the 

 array of component species, may be expected to change frequently, for Embiop- 

 tera studies are yet in an early formative stage. 



ZORAPTERA 



Ashley B. Gurney 

 Entomological Society of America, 1530 P Street, N. W., Washington 5, D. C. 



The Zoraptera comprise one of the most recently defined insect orders. 

 As recently as 1913 Silvestri described the first three species and characterized 

 the order. Several years earlier, American entomologists had collected Zorap- 

 tera and were puzzled concerning their identity, but it was not until 1918 that 

 the first nearctic species, Zorotypus huhhardi Caudell, was described. Prior to 

 Gurney's 1938 synopsis, Silvestri, Caudell, and Karny had described 12 species. 

 Following World War II, two French entomologists, Delamare-Deboutteville and 

 Paulian, have described several species from Madagascar, Mauritius, and Africa. 

 At present there are 22 described species, in addition to several undescribed 

 ones in collections. One family, Zorotypidae, and one genus, Zorotypus, are 

 known. An Indian genus, Menonia George, proposed as zorapterous in 1936, 

 appears to be incorrectly placed. 



Very few collections contain more than an occasional species. In types, num- 



