26 Journal New York Entomological Society. [^'°'- ^-^iv, 



correctly called " paraptera." The term paraptera, however, should 

 be applied only to the tegulce, as was pointed out by the writer 

 (Crampton, 1914 c) ; the argument that Audouin, 1824, intended 

 that his designation " paraptere " should be applied to the plates aba 

 and pba, being entirely unfounded. In all probability, the basalar 

 sclerites aba and pba are detached portions of the episternum. 



Just behind the pleural wing fulcrum, there may occur one or two 

 small plates called the subalar sclerites (sa of Fig. 5), from their 

 situation immediately below the wing. Whether the subalar plate is 

 a detached portion of the epimeron or not, is questionable. In the 

 Blattidse, the dorsal sclerite designated as " in " in Fig. 7, is connected 

 with a subalar sclerite homologous with " sa" of Fig. 5. 



Just above the pleural alar fulcrum, is a small detached plate 

 " ia" (Fig. 5), or intralar sclerite. It is connected with a dorsal 

 sclerite homologous with that labeled " m " in Fig. 7. From its loca- 

 tion, one might be led to infer that it is a detached portion of the 

 pleural fulcrum of the wing, but the fact that it is connected with the 

 dorsal sclerite homologous with that labeled " m " in Fig. 7, would 

 indicate that this is not the case. The other wing plates are largely 

 formed as detached portions of the bases of the wing nervures. 



From the foregoing discussion, it is evident that the alar ossicles 

 do not furnish any serviceable clues as to the nature of the wings — 

 so far as our present knowledge of them extends, .and the fact that 

 in some insects there is a pre-alar bridge (Fig. i, ptil) and a post-alar 

 bridge (Fig. i, poa) extending between the tergum and pleural re- 

 gion, also throws no further light upon the subject. The fact that the 

 pleuro-alar membrane (or membrane between the wing and pleural 

 region) extends upward into the wing as a continuation of the sur- 

 face of the pleural region, suggests that the basal portion of the 

 wing, at least, might be of a pleural nature, but the evidence in the 

 matter is insufficient to draw any trustworthy conclusions from this 

 alone. Embryology, then furnishes the only reliable evidence at 

 present available, and the embryological evidence, such as it is, indi- 

 cates that the wings are tergal in nature. 



The conclusions to be drawn from the foregoing discussion may 

 be briefly summarized as follows. 



I. The wings of all insects are homologous, and had a common 

 origin, so that the same principles apply to the wings of insects with 



