CONSTITUTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF TERMITES. 75 



insects, " so that the Embiidae that have wings may be 

 described as apterous-like insects provided with two pairs of 

 inefficient wings" (Sharp), the attachment of which to the 

 thorax is feebler than and different from that found in other 

 winged insects. In these respects the Embiidae must be re- 

 garded as absolutely the lowest type of winged insect, and the 

 present writer is inclined to assign them a position intermediate 

 between the Thysanura and the Orthoptera Cursoria. At 

 the same time he is fully impressed with the fallacies which 

 attend any endeavours to establish phylogenetic relationship 

 between the loosely knit surviving families which make up the 

 Thysanura, Orthoptera, and Neuroptera, and believes that 

 these three orders, which have given rise to so persistent a 

 difference of opinion among systematists, may best be treated 

 by their combination into a single order, which will be some- 

 what more than the equivalent of any of the more specialised 

 orders of insects, and its division into families, without recog- 

 nition of any larger aggregates. — W. F. H. B.] 



N.B. — A second species of Embia, of which I know only 

 the larva, exists at Catania. Its habitat is similar to that of 

 the species described, but it is readily distinguished by certain 

 characters. Above it is uniformly dark red-brown, except for 

 the intersegmental membranes between the thoracic segments, 

 which are dull yellow ; the antennae, cerci, and the greater 

 part of the legs are nearly concolorous with the dorsum. The 

 antennae are twenty-jointed. The body, especially the abdo- 

 men and the hinder thoracic segments, is relatively larger. 

 The papillae of the second pair of tarsi are furnished on the 

 inner side with numerous small and easily distinguishable 

 spines; the same arrangement is repeated in the hinder pair, 

 except that the second joint has no papilla.^ 



Catania; June, 1889, 

 * Dr. Rovelli has found an undetermined species of Embia at Rome. 



