CARPENTER: NEUROPTERA & MECOPTERA 537 



contributions to a knowledge of their internal structure. Taxonomic studies 

 were being carried on by H. Burmeister, J. Curtis, J. 0. Westwood, F. Walker, 

 P. Rambur, and H. Hagen. At that time, of course, the order Neuroptera was 

 an ill-defined assemblage of unrelated insects, including mayfl.ies, dragonflies, 

 termites, bark lice, stoneflies, and scorpion flies, in addition to the insects now 

 termed Neuroptera. Just a century ago E. Newman, following a suggestion made 

 earlier by Erichson, proposed a division of the order. One group (Neuroptera) 

 was to include the insects which we now know as Neuroptera, Mecoptera, and 

 Trichoptera; the other (Pseudoneuroptera) was to contain all the other families 

 previously placed in the order. Although further limitation of the order Neu- 

 roptera has since been made, Erichson's and Newman's proposals were signifi- 

 cant in two respects: they emphasized the difference in the metamorphosis of 

 the two groups of insects thus separated and they anticipated the natural or 

 phylogenetic classification of insects which was more generally applied several 

 years later, following publication of the Origin of Species. 



The order Neuroptera of Erichson and Newman was usually subdivided by 

 contemporary entomologists into four families : Sialina, Hemerobina, Panorpina, 

 and Phryganina. Ordinal separation of the caddis flies and scorpion flies was 

 gradually made in publications by C. Gerstaecker (1863), C. Gegenbaur (1877), 

 F. Brauer (1885), and N. Banks (1892). 



From 1850 to 1890 there were only three major workers on Neuroptera and 

 Mecoptera. Brauer continued his studies on their life histories and immature 

 stages, dealing chiefly with Austrian species. Hagen published many taxonomic 

 and biological papers, especially on New World species, his Synopsis of the 

 Neuroptera of North America, With a List of South American Species being 

 the most comprehensive treatment of the group which had appeared up to that 

 time (1886). R. MacLachlan, also, made many important contributions to the 

 knowledge of the world fauna, including a revision of Walker's British Museum 

 Catalogue of Neuroptera and a monograph of the British Neuroptera. 



Since 1890 there have been many more workers on Neuroptera and Mecop- 

 tera. Nathan Bank's published works, beginning in 1892, is the most extensive 

 and on the widest geographical range of material. H. W. van der Weele has 

 also contributed numerous works on species from many parts of the world, his 

 revisional studies (Ascalaphidae and Megaloptera) being especially important. 

 In more recent years D. E. Kimmins has published numerous papers dealing 

 with the faunas of all zoogeographic regions. L. Navas has described a great 

 many species and L. Kriiger numerous genera, both inadequately and on insuf- 

 ficient material. K. J. Morton, Bo Tjeder, J. L. Lacroix, J. A. Lestage, and P. 

 Esben-Petersen have restricted their studies largely to Old World species, though 

 Esben-Petersen's monographic revision of the Mecoptera (1921) covered all spe- 

 cies known at the time. F. J. Killington, whose British Neuroptera (1936-1938) 

 is truly a classic in the literature on this group, has dealt mainly with British 

 species. Similarly F. Klapalek has published studies chiefly on European Neu- 

 roptera and Mecoptera; R. J. Tillyard on the Australian fauna; R. Smith and 

 F. M. Carpenter on the Nearctic members; and Issiki, Miyake, Nakahara, and 

 Okamoto on Asiatic species. 



Much of the revisional work done in recent years has been based on detailed 

 structure of the terminal abdominal segments. Studies of this kind, involving 



