HALTERES: PSEUDHALTERES. 285 



tion. For this reason, apparently, Kirby and Spence have 

 regarded these organs as not being the analogues of the 

 lower pair of wings, but as organs per se ; an opinion like- 

 wise maintained by Latreille (Cours d'Entomol., p. 241*) 

 Their insertion upon the metathorax, in a position with re- 

 ference to the metathoracic spiracle analogous to that of the 

 lower wings of Hymenoptera, together with their occurrence 

 in an order where only two mesothoracic wings are deve- 

 loped, are reasons amply sufficient to induce me (regard being 

 especially had to the law of relative and proportionate deve- 

 lopement already alluded to, in speaking of the variation in 

 the size of the thoracic segments) to consider the halteres as 

 analogous to the second pair of wings, and not as anomalous 

 appendages. 



(f) Pseudhalteres (prcehalteres, Latreille). I have ap- 

 plied this name to a pair of organs somewhat similar in their 

 construction to the halteres, but placed in front of the wings, 

 in the order Strepsiptera, a name signifying twisted wings, 

 and proposed by Mr. Kirby for the extraordinary group of 

 bee and wasp parasites, in allusion to this pair of narrow, 

 elongated, curved, and channelled processes, which (notwith- 

 standing the observation of Mr. F. Bauer, that they were 

 connected with the fore-legs,) he regarded as analogous to 

 elytra. Subsequent authors, however, doubted this analogy, 

 and Latreille changed the name of the order to Rhipiptera. 

 More recent observations have, however, demonstrated that 

 these organs are attached to the mesothorax, which, as well 

 as the prothorax, are extremely short ; and that the large 

 pair of fan-shaped wings are representatives of the lower 

 wings of the Orthoptera, which are folded longitudinally in 

 a similar manner, although the structure of the thorax is very 

 different. Latreille, however, regards these organs as ana- 



* Latreille consequently also regards the winglets as the true ana- 

 logues of the lower wings, although he admits that " ils me scmblent 

 neanmoins partir d'un point un pen plus e"leve" que les ailes." 



