-65- 



A Proposed Classification of the Hemiptera. 



Bv William H. Ashmf.ad. 



Jacksonville, Fia. 



For nearly ten years, the \vriier has made the Hemiptera the object 

 of special study, and below is submitted fur the ct)nsideration uf ihdse 

 interested in these pungent insects, a proposed arrangement of ilie Divi- 

 sions and Families recognized, in accordance vvidi what is conceived to 

 be their natural affinity and natural sequence, based on evoluiionary law. 



Whether or not, the arrangement be accepted, it is believed that the 

 student will find the analytical tables useful and valuable. 



It will also be observed that the Pediculidce, by some audioriiies 

 classified with the mites Acan'na, are included among the He/eropkra ; 

 although some systemalists, while classifying them as hemipterous, con- 

 sidered them to rank as a suborder under the name Parasiiica. 



This arrangement, I have not followed, for the reason thev seem to 

 me, to be too closely related, in habits and structure, to the heteropterous 

 families PolycteyiidcB and Cimicidce, to justify their separation. 



In general appearance, too, they so closely resemble — in a remark- 

 able degree — the immature forms in the homopterous family Coccidce, 

 that they very naturally bridge the chasm separating the Homoptera from 

 the Heteroptera, and afford — by placing them at the head of the Heterop- 

 tera, as has been done —the presentation of a natural consecutive sequence 

 of all the hemipterous families 



Before giving the characters for separating the divisions and families 

 of the Hemiptera, it may be advisable to show the position and rank it is 

 believed that this order should occupy in any natural scheme of arrange- 

 ment of the so-called orders of insects, based i'>n evolutionary law, 



I believe that the class Insecta, or those expressions of life classed by 

 Zoologists as such — animals breathing through trachece — is represented 

 to-day by two groups that came into existence in two distinct wa\s, being 

 evolved, the one from the Crustacea, the other from the Vermes, which 

 may be distinguished by the following very simple character: 



Insects with antennce Cerata m 



Insects without antennje Acerata m 



The first group, or Cerata, originated from a crustacean ancestor 

 and is represented to-day by the Myriapoda, Thysamira, Orthoptera, 

 Neuroptera, Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, Hemiptera, Diptera, and Hymenop- 

 tera ; while, the second group or Acerata, evolved from an ancestral 

 worm-like form, is represented by the Z?>?^«a/?<//;?(?, Tardigrada, Acarina, 

 Pedipalpi znd Arach7iida. 



