— 102—- 



Prof. C. V. Riley, c unmenting on the address, said ihe paper was an 

 important one, and he fully realized the difficulties m coming to a final 

 ami satisfactory conclusion. For his part he liked jhe old classificatfons, 

 based on the irophi and pterostic characters.. They had the merit of being 

 well defined and easily 'limited. He did not believe in the creation pi 

 numerous orders, but would rather consider them aberrant groups pi 

 sub-orders, if necessary. Classification however for some time to conie 

 must be a matter of opinion. Many, classifications have been proposed 

 since that of Linnaeus, have had their day, ami base been forgotten. He 

 had the highest respect for Dr. Brauer, but- did not entirely agree with 

 him. He did not think too much stress ought to be given to the ad< les- 

 cent states, which, more than anything, were subject to independent 

 changes by the environment. There was difficulty in recognizing the 

 Dermoptera as belonging to the Orthoptera, but he believed they fhould 

 be considered rather as a sub-order than an order. lie did not feel like 

 placing the Thripidce for instance on an equality with, say the Hemipiera, 

 and did not believe in the cie.nioii of orders with few species or genera 

 — lie would rather consider diem as aberrant members of a class. Classi- 

 fication alter all is only a means to an end, ami whatever may be ultimately 

 adopted, embryology will give many important guides in questionable 

 cases, and will modify our views of the relationship of species. 



Mr. J. 1]. Smith said he was glad Prof. Comstock had chosen the 

 subject he did, for he had long wished that the gist of Brauer's classifica- 

 tion could be presented in an accessible form to American students, and 

 Prof. Comslock's paper did that to some extent. He agreed thoroughly 

 with Prof. Riley in his estimate of the value of the adolescent stages. In 

 the Lepidoptera for instance the larvae of Alypia, Psychomorpha and Kit- 

 dryas are scarcely distinguishable, while the imagoes certainly belong to 

 different families. He thought it required considerable courage often, to 

 carry out consistentlv the idea of giving value to structure, irrespective of 

 number of species or genera. In the Coleoptera only they have consist 

 ehtly based families on structure, whether there was one species or 

 thousands. 



Prof. Comstock stated that at the standing committee meetings he 

 had announced the hour of meeting of the Club at 9 A. M. , and asked 

 the pleasure of the meeting as to further dates. After some discussion is 

 was decided to meet at 9 A. M. on the loth, and to decide at that time 

 1 'ii future dates. 



Under the call of papers, Mr. Smith read from printed proofs a papei 

 on the species ol' Callimorpha, prepared for the U. S. Nat'l. Mus. Proc, 

 illustrated by blackboard sketches.. He made 9 species of the American 



