90 THE entomologist's kecoku. 



capacious matrix or uterus, iu wliicli tlic larvae are liatched, or even 

 attain the pupa form before birth, is not without interest, presenting as 

 it does, some analogy with the viviparous cliaracter of the mammalia 

 among vertebrates — whilst the nest-building instincts are more manifest 

 in Hymenoptera and in birds. It is triie that the flies and more 

 especialty the heavy forms, with a comparatively tardy flight like the 

 blowfly, have been regarded as stupid — Sprengel call tliem ' die dummcn 

 Fliegen ' — and do not excite our sympathy and curiosity to the same 

 extent, as the social Hymeno})tera ; but it is iuq^ossible to judge of the 

 intellectual functions of an insect. The manner in which the l)low- 

 flies, and their near allies, the horse-flies, have made themselves at home 

 Avith man, speaks for their power of adapting themselves to new and 

 varied conditions. They are cunning, wary, and easily alarmed, and 

 except when benumbed with cold, or heavy with eggs, know well how 

 to avoid danger. They appear to me far more clever in this respect, 

 than the bees and wasps." 



On the other hand Lubbock writes : — " liees are intelligi'ut insects 

 and would soon cease to visit flowers Avhich did not supply tliem with 

 food. Flies, however, are more stupid and are often deceived. Thus 

 in our lovely Parnassia, five of the ten stamens have ceased to produce 

 2)ollen, but are prolonged into fingers, each terminating in a shining 

 yellow knob, which looks exactly like a drop of honey, and by which 

 flies are continually deceived. Paris qiuidrifoJia also takes them in 

 with a deceptive jn'omise of the same kiiul. Some foivign plants lia\c 

 livid yellow and reddish flowers with a most oft'ensive smell and arc 

 constantly visited l)y flies, which appai'cntly take them for }»ieces oi 

 decaying meat." 



It must be granted that in one particular the modification under- 

 gone by certain Diptera, is very great. The power which the 8arco])haga 

 have of bringing forth their young alive, is an exceptionally strong 

 })oint in favour of giving them the highest position, but in many other 

 directions, especially with regard to high instinctive faculties, I feel 

 perfectly satisfied that the Hymenoptera are more highly specialised as a 

 group than the Uiptera, and I believe that this opinion is very generally 

 held. I should, therefore, place the Hymeno2)tera before the Diptera in 

 a table of this kind. The anatomy shows very advanced conditions in 

 both groups, but the Avell-known habits of ants and liees may readily 

 be shown to far transcend any habits of the Diptera., wliilst many 

 structural points relating to othei" members of the Hymenojttera are 

 but little inferior to the special structural pccidiarities in certain 

 Diptera. 



5. On the origin of insects. — 1 sliall not attempt to discuss tlie 

 different vicAVs which have been put forward as to the origin oi insects. 

 Packard suiiposes them to have been developed from an ancestral form 

 resembling Venues ; Miiller and Dohrn, that they sprung from forms 

 resemliling the ZiJea or larval condition of tlie Crustacea ; Jjubbock and 

 lirauer consider that the ancestral form closely resembled the existing 

 genus Campodca, one of the Podnrulae, which they suppose to be the 

 nearest re2)resentative of the i)rimitive form of insect at present in 

 existence ; Hiiekel considers ProthehiuA as the ancestral form from 

 which Echinodermata, Arthropoda, Mollusca and Vertebrata have been 

 evolved. M. Cholodkovsky l)elieves that insects were derived from 

 ScolojicndrcUa-Vxkc ancestors, and fui'thcr adds "even Cralier considers 



