( cxix ) 



A little further oti lie gives a few instances to enforce his 

 argument; and in reference to one of these, he says that 

 " On page 242 of his Cours d" Enloiiiologie, Latreille, 1831, 

 has described a Coleopteron Aewciiius {sic) longimaiius, whose 

 ])rothorax bears articulated lateral processes [teste Cholod- 

 kowsky 1886),' and " If these can become articulated to the 

 prothorax without first passing through a tracheal gill stage, 

 why can the wings not do the same I To demand that the 

 wings must pass through a tracheal gill stage in order to 

 become articulated to the tergum, is asking more than the 

 facts would warrant, and in the light of the foregoing instances, 

 this objection to the origin of wings from paranota is not 

 valid." The reference given to Latreille is, however, wrong; 

 for in the work cited Latreille does not even mention the 

 beetle named, though he probably does so elsewhere, as did 

 most of the old authors when pointing out the remarkable 

 character of its prothoracic processes. For example, we find 

 it alluded to in Kirby and Spence's Entomology (Vol. Ill, 

 p. 538) as follows — 



" But the 'prothorax has movable as well as fixed appendages ; 

 of this kind are those spine;:, (iiiiihn :cs) whose base is a spherical 

 boss moving in an acetabulum of tiie thoracic shield of the 

 Capricorn subgenus Macropus, Thunb. If I might hazard 

 a conjecture, I should say that these organs were given to 

 this animal by an all-provident Creator, to enable it to push 

 itself forward, when in the heart of some tree it emerges from 

 the pupa, that it may escape from its confinement."' 



Lacordaire, however, who, in his Introduction a VEntomo- 

 logie (Vol. I, p. 34, 1834), has also described the movable 

 spines of Acrocinus longimanus, gave a different version of 

 their origin : " D'apfes la loi cpii s'oppose a Tintroduction 

 d'une piece nouvelle, cette epine ne pent etre qu'une des 

 ]iicces du ])rothorax qui a pris une forme insolide, et son 

 analogue doit f e retrouver dans tons les autres Insectes ; 

 aussi d'apres f-a situation, pensons-nous que ce n'est autre 

 chose que le trochantin c{ui a cesse de faire corps avec la 

 handle, est devenu libre et se portait au dehors, au lieu 

 de rester cache a Tinterieur, a pris nn developpement 

 inaccoutume. Du reste, I'usage de ce trochantin, ainsi 



