10 THE GENESIS OF THE TERMINOLOGY 



numbering of the veins with the subcosta which they designated as vein I. 

 These facts led us to make the following statement : 



"In designating the wing- veins they may be either named or numbered. The 

 simplest method is, doubtless, to number them; and had the system which was proposed 

 by Redtenbacher been based on a correct understanding of the primitive type, nothing 

 better could be desired. But it was not; and, as several modifications of the Redten- 

 bacher system are already in use, it seems doubtful if uniformity in numbering them 

 could be soon brought about. 



"From the great mass of names that had been proposed for the principal wing-veins, 

 Redtenbacher selected a set of terms, to the acceptance of which no objection has been 

 urged. It seems, therefore, that the surest way to bring about uniformity of nomen- 

 clature is to give up the attempt to apply a set of numbers to the wing-veins, and to use 

 the names adopted by Redtenbacher. These names and the abbreviations of them 

 which we shall use in our text as well as in the figures illustrating it, are as follows: 



Costa, C Media, M. 



Subcosta, Sc. Cubitus, Cu. 



Radius, R. Anal veins, A. 



"In designating the branches of the forked veins we have adopted the principle 

 of numbering them proposed by Redtenbacher and combine the numbers with the 

 abbreviations of the names of the veins. Thus, the first branch of radius is designated 

 as radius-one; and for this term the abbreviation R\ is used." 



The terminology of the wing-veins elaborated by Comstock and 

 Needham in the series of articles referred to above is now commonly 

 designated as the Comstock-Needham system. But it should be remem- 

 bered that this system is merely a modification of that proposed by Red- 

 tenbacher; and the fundamental work of this author should not be over- 

 looked. 



Redtenbacher' s system, being based upon the erroneous theory of 

 Adolph was not available without modification. This had been shown by 

 Brauer and Redtenbacher, Haase, and Spuler. But as each of these 

 authors maintained that costa is not a vein, an incorrect starting point for 

 the numbering of the veins was indicated. 



Comstock and Needham demonstrated that costa is preceded by a 

 trachea and is therefore a true vein. Previous to the publication of their 

 articles Spuler had worked out the lepidopterous type of venation (except 

 as regards costa) , and Comstock had also worked out that of the Lepidop- 

 tera, and in addition that of the Diptera, and Hymenoptera. Taking up 

 the work at this point, Comstock and Needham extended it by a study of 

 the development of the wings of representatives of nearly all of the orders of 

 winged insects, and presented a hypothetical type of primitive wing- 

 venation from which they believe that' the venation of the wings of all 

 orders have been evolved. They also pointed out the various methods of 

 speciahzation by which the primitive type has been modified. This placed 

 the uniform terminology on a broad and firm basis. 



