156 HINTS ON THE ANCESTRY OF INSECTS. 



The first to discuss this subject of the ancestry of insects was 

 Fritz Mttller, who in his F(ir Darwin,"* published in 1803, says, 

 at the end of his work, "Having reached the Nauplius, the 

 j extreme outpost of the class, retiring 



farthest into the gray mist of primitive 

 time, we naturally look round us to see 

 whether ways may not be descried thence 

 towards other bordering regions. * * * 

 But I can see nothing certain. Even 

 towards the nearer provinces of the Myri- 

 opoda and Arachnida I can find no bridge. 

 For the Insecta alone, the development 

 of the Malacostraca [Crabs, Lobsters, 

 Shrimps, etc.] may perhaps present a 

 point of union. Like many Zoea;, the 

 Insecta possess three pairs of limbs 

 serving for the reception of nourishment, 

 and three pairs serving for locomotion ; 

 like the Zoeae they have an abdomen 

 190. Zoea. without appendages ; as in all Zoese the 



mandibles in Insecta are destitute of palpi. Certainly but little 

 in common, compared with the much which distinguishes these 

 two animal forms. Nevertheless, the supposition that the In- 

 secta had for their common ancestor a Zoea which raised itself 

 into a life on land, may be recommended for further examina- 

 tion" (p. 140). 



Afterwards Haeckel in his "Generelle Morphologic" (18G6) 

 and "History of Creation," published in 1868, reiterates the 

 notion that, the insects are derived from the larva (Zoea, Fig. 

 190) of the crabs, though he is doubtful whether they did not 

 originate directly from the worms. f 

 It may be said in opposition to the view that the insects came 



* Translated in 18G9 by Mr. Dallas under the title "Facts for Darwin." 

 f'Whether that common stem-form of all the Tracheata [Insects, Myriopods and 

 Spiders] which I have called Protracheata in my 'General Morphology' has devel- 

 oped directly from the true Annelides (Coelelminthes),or, the next thing to this 

 (zunachst), Qjut of Zoea-form Crustacea (Zoepoda), will be hereafter established 

 only through a sufficient knowledge and comparison of the structure and mode of 

 growth of the Tracheata, Crustacea and Annelides. In either case is the root of the 

 Tracheata, as also of the Crustacea, to be sought in the group of the tme jointed 

 worms (Annelides, Gephyrea and Rotatoria." He considers the first insect to have 

 appeared after the Silurian period, viz., in the Devonian. 



