— 102 — 



Prof. C. V. Riley, ominenting on the atitli-ess, said the paper was an 

 impuilant one, and he fully realized tlie difficulties in coining to a final 

 ami salisfaclory conclusion. For his pari he liked the old cla>sificaiioiis, 

 based on the irophi and pterostic chaiacleis. Tiiey had the merit of being 

 well defined and easily limited. He did ne)t believe in the creation of 

 numerous orders, but would rather consider diem aberrant gioups or 

 sub-orders, if necessary. Classification however for some lime to come 

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

 since that of Linnaeus, have IkuI their day, and havj lieen forgoiieii. He 

 had ihe highest respect for \a: bram-r, but did not entirely agree widi 

 him. He did not ilimk too much stress ought to be given to d.e adoles- 

 cent states, which, more than anytliing. were subject to indepemlent 

 changes b}- the environment. 'I here was difficulty in recognizing the 

 Dermoptera as belonging to the Orthoftera, but he believeil they .'•hould 

 be considered rather as a sub-order than an order. He did not feel bke 

 placing the Thrifndo' for instance on an equality with, say xXxt Heiniptera, 

 ami did not believe in the creation of orders with few species or genera ■ 

 — he would rather consider them as aberrant members of a class. Classi- 

 fication after all is only a means to an end, and whatever may be ultimately 

 ado])ted, embryology will give many important guides in qucstidiiable 

 cases, and will inodiA' our views of the relationship of species. 



]\Ir. |. 1). Smith saitl he was glad Prof Comstock had chosen the 

 subject he diii, for he had long wished that the gist t^f Brauer's classifica- 

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

 Prof Comslock's paper did that to jiome extent. He agreetl thoroughly 

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

 the Lepidoptera for instance the larvae of A/ypia, Psychomorpha and Eu- 

 dryas are scarcely distinguishable, while the imagoes certainly belong to 

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

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

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

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

 thousands. 



Prof Comstock stated that at the standing committee meetings he 

 hail announced the luuir of meeting of the Club at 9 A. M.. and asked 

 the pleasure of the meeting as to further dates. Affer some discussion it 

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

 on future dates. 



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

 on the species of G////w«;-/>/;rt, prepared for the U. S. Nat'l. Mus. Proc. , 

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



