1902 Entomology in Atituinn 287 



searched with more or less hope of turning up rare and strange 

 forms ; for, though many have already gone into snug winter 

 quarters, others, that will die off this year, yet cling to a 

 dreary existence till their oviposition be safely accomplished. 

 But many autumn days will not admit of collecting, and 

 plenty of time will now be found for turning to the classifica- 

 tion and investigation of material amassed during the year. 

 We will suppose you have a heterogeneous assembly of insects 

 stowed away, anyhow, as they came to your net, in store- 

 boxes and whatnot, and you now want to overhaul them, to 

 divide them up into as natural a sequence of classes as possible. 

 The first point to be examined is their wings. You will find 

 the great majority is furnished with two pairs of these ap- 

 pendages, a good many have but one fully developed pair, 

 and a very few have no wings at all. Those with one pair 

 are easily separated, and you may be quite sure that they are 

 all species belonging to the order called Diptera or true 

 Flies, which is satisfactory. But those with two pairs are 

 far more difficult. Among them are all sorts and conditions 

 of insects, and you must next notice if the fore or upper pair 

 of wings is of stouter texture than the hind or lower pair. 

 All insects having thickened or hard fore-wings are referable 

 to two orders ; and, to find in which to place them, see if 

 their mouth be constructed in the form of jaws for biting or 

 of a proboscis for sucking. Those with jaws will have the 

 whole of the fore-wings hard, and are Colcoptera or beetles ; 

 those with a proboscis are Hemiptera, and many of them 

 (constituting the sub-order Heteroptera or bugs) will have half 

 the fore-wings thickened and half membranous, transparent. 

 The Hemiptera that have the fore-wings uniformly thickened 

 are jumpers, with long hind-legs, and may be placed in 

 the sub-order Homoptera {cf. F. N. Q. i. p. 41). The host 

 of insects bearing four equally membranous wings are divis- 

 ible into three sections, the first of which, Lepidoptera, em- 

 bracing butterflies and moths, is known by the beautiful 

 scales which nearly always entirely clothe the membrane 

 both above and beneath ; the second is distinguished by 

 bearing no scales, though often (in its sub-order Trichoptera) 

 the wings are hairy. This second section is called Neur- 

 optera ; it includes the Dragon - flies, with other familiar 



