THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



of our philosophy of these parts ; the same 

 terminology is not employed in any two of 

 the larger sub-orders of insects ; names 

 without number have been proposed, rarely 

 however by any author with a view to their 

 applicability to any group outside that 

 which formed his special study ; and a 

 tabular view which should illustrate them 

 all would be a curious sight. A careful 

 study of the main and subordinate veins, 

 their relations to each other, to the different 

 regions of the wing, to the supporting parts 

 of the thorax and to the alar muscles, 

 should be carried through the entire order 

 of insects ; by no means, either, neglecting 

 their development in time, and possibly 

 deriving some assistance in working out 

 homologies by the study of their hypo- 

 dermic development. 



The second concerns the mouth parts. 

 The general homologies of these organs 

 were clearly and accurately enough stated 

 by Savigny, though one may perhaps have 

 a right to consider the last word not yet 

 said when one recalls Saussure's recent 

 claim to have found in Heniiinerus a second 

 labium. What I refer to, however, is an- 

 other point : it relates to the appendages 

 of the maxillae and the labium. Consider- 

 ing the labium as a soldered pair of sec- 

 ondary maxilla; we have at the most, on 

 either pair of maxilla:, three appendages 

 upon either side. These appendages, as 

 you know, are very variously developed in 

 different sub-orders of insects, or even in 

 the same sub-order ; and it has at least not 

 been shown, and I question if it can be 

 done, that the parts bearing similar names 

 in different sub-orders are always homolo- 

 gous organs. Here is a study as broad 

 and perhaps as difficult as the last. 



The third is the morphological signifi- 

 cance of monstrosities, especially of such 

 as are termed monstrosities by excess. 

 The literature of the subject is very scat- 

 tered, and the material much more exten- 

 sive than many of you may think. At 

 present this subject is, so to speak, only 

 one of the curiosities of entomology, but 

 we may be confident that it will one day 

 show important relations to the story of life. 



After all the labors of Herold, Trevira- 

 nus, Lyonet, Dufour, and dozens of other 

 such industrious and illustrious workers, is 

 there anything important remaining to be 

 done in the gross anatomy of insects ? some 

 of you would perhaps ask. Let the recent 

 work of some of our own number answer, 

 which has shown in the Hemiptera and 

 Lepidoptera the existence of a curious 

 pumping arrangement by which nutritious 

 fluids are forced into the stomach. It is 

 certainly strange that after all that has 

 been said as to the mode in which a but- 

 terfly feeds, that no one should have dis- 

 sected a specimen with sufficient care to 

 have seen the pharyngeal sac which Mr. 

 Burgess will soon show us. No! the field 

 is still an open one, as the annual reviews 

 clearly show. The curious results of Flo- 

 gel's studies of the brain, the oddly-con- 

 structed sense-organs found by Graber and 

 Meyer (earlier noticed briefly by Leydig) 

 in the antennse of Diptera, the important 

 anatomical distinctions discovered by Forel 

 in different groups of ants, the strange 

 modification of the tip of the spiral tongue 

 in Ophiiieres, which Darwin, Brietenbach 

 and Kiinckel have discussed, and, above 

 all, the extensive investigations of the 

 nervous system in insects generally, which 

 Brandt has recently undertaken, the ex- 

 quisite memoir of Greenacher on the struc- 

 ture of the compound eye, and the keen 

 researches of Graber in various dejiart- 

 ments of insect anatomy, show, by what 

 has been accomplished, how many harvests 

 are still unreaped. The microtome, too, 

 has put a new instrument of precision into 

 the hands of the investigator in the field. 



We might in the same way point out 

 some of the special needs in the study of 

 the finer anatomy or histology of insects, 

 but the pressure of other duties forbids a 

 further pursuit of the subject. Enough 

 surely has been suggested, even in this 

 hasty sketch, to show that we cannot yet 

 rest upon our oars, but must push forward 

 undaunted into still unknown waters. If 

 these few words shall arouse in any one a 

 higher ambition, leading to better work, 

 their aim will have been accomplished. 



