450 Dr. A. Dohrn on Eugereon Boeckingi 
mouth. If we suppose the labial palpi to lay themselves to- 
gether by their free, smooth, inner margins, and to enclose — 
the jaws within them, we have before us a picture exactly 
analogous to the rostrum of a Bug. All that would then be 
necessary is the amalgamation of the two palpi so as to pro- 
duce the tube, and the gradual conversion of the rather stronger 
jaws into weaker ones, to attain the formation of the Hemi- 
pterous rostrum. ‘The structure of the head, the breadth of 
the thorax, the form of the legs, which so distinctly remind 
us of the Hulgoride, are, moreover, the clearest indications that 
we have to do with an animal which is very nearly allied to 
the Hemiptera. On the other hand, however, the form of the 
wings, the venation, and the antenne do not altogether nega- 
tive a comparison with the Neuroptera; and thus we get as 
the probable final result that Hugereon is to be regarded as a 
very ancient insect, which indicates a still older progenitor, 
in which Hemiptera and Neuroptera were still entirely undif- 
ferentiated. It would be impossible to regard Hugereon itself 
as this progenitor, because, in the first place, Neuroptera were 
already in existence along with it, their remains having been 
found; but, on the other hand, we can hardly fail to see how 
it would gradually entirely lose the characters of the one order 
and change and bring to perfection the others alone. It is 
much more intelligible to regard it as part of an extinct side- 
line, which had a common progenitor with the Hemiptera and 
Neuroptera, if, indeed, my view as to the relationship of 
Eugereon with the latter order in the structure of the wings 
and antenne should prove correct.” 
Thus, therefore, we have in Hugereon an animal which 
again demonstrates with extraordinary distinctness the truth 
of the Darwinian theory, and does its part in assisting to throw a 
little more light upon the principles of morphological science. 
It was to be expected, and, indeed, was regarded as certain by 
all unprejudiced naturalists, that morphology in general would 
undergo a powerful shock and a complete revolution by means 
of the Darwinian theory, and that a gigantic step would have 
to be made in this science. Already, before any one could 
have expected such a thing, this gigantic step has been made 
by Hiickel, the celebrated zoologist of the University of Jena. 
In his work on the general morphology of organisms* are 
laid down the principles of a new science, Morphology. I 
shall have occasion elsewhere to refer fully to the wide signi- 
ficance of this work, and its extremely rich and ee 
contents; here I will only extract one thing, namely, the 
* Generelle Morphologie der Organismen, von Ernst Hackel. 2 vols. 
Beilin, 1866. 
