UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PUBLICATIONS 

 TECHNICAL BULLETINS 



COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE. AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION 



ENTOMOLOGY 



Vol. 1, No. 1. pp. 1-152. September, 1906 



CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE. ZOOLOGICAL LABORATORY OF THE 

 MUSLUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY AT HARVARD COLLEGE, 

 UNDER THE DIRECTION OF E. L. MARK.— No. 181. 



THL WING VLIN5 OF IN5LCT5. 



BY 



C. W. WOODWORTH. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The wings of insects are more extensively used in classifica- 

 tion than any other portion of the body. Since wing characters 

 are peculiarly conspicuous and tangible, it might be supposed 

 that taxonomists have chosen them for the identification of 

 groups to a larger extent than their relative importance 

 warrants, simply because they present easily recognized char- 

 acters. One has but to make comparison, however, of wing 

 characters with those based on other parts of the body to be 

 led irresistibly to the conclusion that they are of exceptionally 

 high value. It is not too much to say that of all structures 

 the wings have preserved the most nearly complete record of 

 the course of the phyletic history of insects. The confidence 

 with which wing characters are selected for the differentiation 

 of groups results, in large part, from the recognition of this 

 high phylogenetic significance, and the conviction that groups 

 so defined are natural. 



Though this fact will doubtless be readily conceded by every 

 one, it seems strange that so little attention has been given to 

 the study of the wings by those who have attempted to investi- 

 gate the classification of the orders of insects from the stand- 

 point of their evolution. There is, however, a difficulty which 

 has stood, and still stands, in the way of the utilization of the 

 data, that may be a sufficient explanation of this failure. It 

 is the absence of a really comprehensive study of this compli- 



