Stylojyidce. 7 



cases, constructed more or less in accordance with one 

 uniform type, it is fitting that some general principles 

 should be laid down, whereby comparisons may be insti- 

 tuted, and all definitions framed upon a common basis. 



Among the wings of the several orders of insects, set 

 forth with the utmost care and precision by Kirby and 

 Spence, in their celebrated " Introduction to Entomo- 

 logy" (Vol. III. PI. X), the only example affording any ob- 

 vious analogy in this respect, is that of the Coleopterous 

 type (fig. 4). 



In this indeed, as notably described in the text itself 

 (p. 626), " the first thing that strikes the physiologist in 

 surveying a wing belonging to an insect of this order, is 

 the general arrangement of the nervures ; which are so 

 placed that the required degree of tension may be given 

 to every part of this organ : thus, some are nearly 

 straight; others run in a ser^e?i^me direction ; others are 

 forked, with one branch recurrent and another proceeding 

 onwards ; others again are insulated, or do not originate 

 from the base of the wing, or from other nervures, but 

 are merely placed to strengthen an open space of it. 

 Another striking circumstance with regard to them is, 

 that the nervures form few or no closed areolets, except 

 in the costal area, where they are inconspicuous." Who 

 would not suppose, after careful comparison, that this 

 lucid description of a Coleopterous wing had been 

 expressly founded upon one of the Stylopidte, as the 

 Selected type ? 



Kirby elsewhere observes (/) that in the latter, 

 'Hhe veining of the wings is very simple," and that 

 " in this they somewhat resemble the Coleopterous 

 genera" {Hister, Necrophorus, &c.) which he quotes; but 

 while noticing also that '' they fold longitudinally," it is 

 remarkable that he should have been led to look rather 

 to the Orthoptera than to the Bhipiphoridce for an afiinity 

 in this respect. 



In proceeding to a more minute examination of the 

 several nervures, as adverted to by Kirby and Spence in 

 their Synoptical Table of Nomenclature (p. 353) and 

 in the subsequent description of the nervures themselves 

 (pp. 374, 375, 626), we find, in the first instance, 

 that in the metathoracic wing of the Stylopidce, the 

 costal nervure (neura costalis) is thickened at its base in 



(/) Limi. Traus. Vol. XI. p. 101. ' 



