GROUPING OF INSECTS. 



105 



The following diagram shows, in a rude waj^ the relative 

 rank and affinities of the seven suborders, and of the two 

 series of Six-footed Insects. 



Neuroptera. 

 Through Lejnsma, and Podura which are wingless Neuropter- 

 ous insects, the lower series is connected with the Myriopods, 

 the minute degraded myriopod, Pauropns of Lubbock, per- 

 haps forming the connecting link ; and through the wingless 

 flies, Braida, Chioiiea, and Nycteribia, the Diptera, belonging 

 to the higher series, assume the form of the Spiders, the head 

 being small, and sunken into the thorax, Avhile the legs are 

 long and slender. The first and highest series culminates in 

 Ajjis, the Honey-bee ; and the second, or lower, in Cicindela, 

 the Tiger-beetle. 



reganling the rauk and value of the minor groups. Professor Agassiz extended 

 Leuckart's views in considei-ing the seven grand divisions of the order of Ilexapods 

 as suborders. In 1S(J3 (How to Observe and Collect Insects, Maine Scientific Sur- 

 vey, and Synthetic Types of Insects, Boston Journal of Natural History), we 

 l)roposed a new classification of these suborders, by which they are thrown into 

 two main groups headed by the Hymenoptera and Coleoptera respectively. These 

 two groups, as represented in the diagram, are nearly equivalent in value, and 

 stand in a somewhat parallel relation. There is nothing like a linear series in the 

 animal kingdom, but it is like a tree. The higher series of suborders form more 

 of a linear series than the lower series, so that in the diagram the Neuroptera, 

 Ortlioptera, llemiptera, and Coleoptera form a more broken series than the Hy- 

 menoptera, Lepidoptera, and Diptera. A Bee, Butterfly, and House-Ily are much 

 more closely allied to each other than a Beetle, a Squash-bug, a Grasshopper, 

 and a Dragon-fly are among themselves. The Neuroptera are the most indepen- 

 dent, and stand at the bottom of and between tlie two series, thougli by the Orthop- 

 tei'a tlicy are very intimately linked with the llemiptera and Coleoptera. 



