154 THE STREPSIPTERA. 



phenomena of their reproduction with those presented 

 by the beetles which are parasitic upon bees and 

 wasps, such as Meloe and Rhipiphorus, we shall find 

 them to be pretty nearly identical ; and as the general 

 structure of the male Strepsiptera presents nothing 

 that can be regarded as entirely incompatible with 

 the idea of a Coleopterous insect (even the peculiar 

 wings and elytra having not very distant representa- 

 tives amongst undoubted beetles), many of the first 

 entomologists of the present day agree in placing 

 these singular and problematical creatures amongst 

 the Coleoptera, in the immediate neighbourhood of 

 the parasitic Heteromerous Beetles. I have, how- 

 ever, preferred retaining them as a distinct order, 

 both because they are so treated by most English 

 writers, and from a feeling that, by giving them a 

 little more prominence than may perhaps be strictly 

 their due, the reader's attention would be more for- 

 cibly drawn to a most curious and interesting group 

 of insects. 



