28 MODERN CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. 



which it will require far greater investigations and much more 

 elaborate research to bring to perfection than it has hitherto received. 

 Modifications of the system of Mr. MacLeay have been published 

 by Messrs. Kirby and Spence, and Mr. Stephens. The former 

 authors (Introd. iv. p. 368.), distribute the Metamorphotic Insects in 

 the following manner, 



* Orders in which the ordinary Trophi all occur, or the mouth is perfect. 

 1. Coleoptera. 2. Strepsiptera. 3. Dermaptera. 4. Orthoptera. 

 5. Neuroptera. 6. Hymenoptera. 



** Orders in which cdl the ordinary Trophi do not occur, or the mouth 



is imperfect. 



7. Hemiptera (divided into Heteroptera and Homoptera as sub- 

 orders). 8. Trichoptera. 9. Lepidoptera. 10. Diptera. 11. Apha- 

 niptera (the Flea). 



Here we find the Strepsiptera interfering to prevent the passage 

 between the Coleoptera and Orthoptera effected by the earwigs, the 

 Neuroptera and Trichoptera far asunder, and other equally great 

 objections. 



Mr. Stephens {Illustrations Brit. Ent. Mand. i. p. 2., Haust. i. p. 2.), 

 adopts the divisions, Mandibulata and Haustellata, placing in the 

 former the orders, 2. Strepsiptera, 3. Coleoptera, 4. Dermaptera, 

 5. Orthoptera, 6. Neuroptera, 7. Trichoptera, 1. Hymenoptera; 

 and in the latter the orders, 13. Hemiptera, 14. Homoptera, 8. Lepi- 

 doptera, 9. Diptera, 10. Homaloptera, 11. Aphaniptera, and 12. Ap- 

 tera (or the lice which I have excluded, as above mentioned). Like 

 Mr. MacLeay, Mr. Stephens regards these two groups as forming 

 circles, the extremities of each being allied together. 



Against these and other classifications*, which it would be too tedious 

 to detail, and in which the number of the Linnaean orders is much in- 

 creased, objections exist on the part of some authors who consider 

 it more natural to place the Strepsiptera, Earwigs, Forcst-tlies, Fleas, 

 Thrips, &c., in some of the old orders. Such groups, it is true, are of far 

 more limited extent, and also of less decisive characters than the 

 great groups; but it appears to nie to be as erroneous to force them 



* Amongst these, that proposed by i\I. I.aporte, in liis Etudes Entomologujues, 

 ought not to be omitted ; in which Terraes, Libellula (with Perla and Ephemera), 

 Aphis, and Coccus, are raised to the rank of distinct orders. 



