Prof. Schaum on the Systematic Position of the Strepsiptera. 53 



thick, though generally thickest in the middle and thinning away 

 to the periphery — sometimes dying away before they reach it, 

 and sometimes extending beyond it. They are generally united 

 to the body of the vertebrse. 



Nothing in osteology is more curious than the condition of 

 epiphyses in the long bones of Plesiosaurs; for here they are 

 so enormously large as to form nearly the whole of the bone, 

 the shaft being reduced to a mere girdle encircling the ends of 

 the epiphyses. Young specimens of humerus or femur, with 

 the shaft 2 or 3 inches long, have generally lost their epiphyses; 

 and in one beautiful specimen from the Kimmeridge Clay of 

 Cottenham, presented to the University by the Rev. S. Banks, a 

 shaft nearly three inches in diameter has lost both epiphyses. It 

 is quite tubular, smooth in the central part, which is perforated 

 for the enormous arteries, and only shows signs of attachment 

 at its thin ends, where the inner surface is rugged. Often, in 

 the Greensand specimens, the epiphysis of the proximal end 

 comes out. The shaft varies much in proportion, with the 

 species. 



X. — On the Systematic Position of the Strepsiptera. 

 By Professor Schaum*. 



The family of the Strepsiptera or Stylopidce, so remarkable in 

 their mode of development, was first regarded as a group of 

 Coleoptera by Burmeister (Handb. der Naturgesch., 1837), and 

 placed by him in the immediate vicinity of the Bhipiphoridous 

 genus Symhius, Sundev. (Isis, 1831, tab. 8) = /?^z/?z«fm5, Thunb., 

 which is parasitic upon Blattce. This notion has since been 

 adopted by Newman, Schiodte, and other entomologists, and 

 most recently by Lacordaire, who, in the fifth volume of his 

 ^ Genera des Coleopteres,' treats the Stylopidcs as a family of 

 Beetles standing in immediate contact with the Rhipiphoridce, 

 and in connexion therewith cites some of the reasons adduced 

 by me in favour of this view, and in opposition to the objections 

 raised against it. 



Leconte also, in his recently published work, the ^ Classifica- 

 tion of the Coleoptera of North America,^ has placed the Stylo- 

 pidce next the Rhipiphoridce, in consideration of their organiza- 

 tion and development. In the " Report on the Progress of 

 Entomology in the year 1861" (Wiegmann*s Archiv, xxviii. 

 p. 328), Dr. Gerstacker makes the following remarks in con- 



* Translated by W. S. Dallas, F.L.S., from Wiegmann's 'Archiv,' 1864, 

 p. 145. 



