ANALOGIES OF THE PTILOTA. 4.Q 



Analogies of the Five Orders of the Ptilota. 



Orders of the Analnrlei Classes of the 



Pt'lota. Analogies. Vertebrata. 



Lepidoptera. Wings highly developed. Birds. 



Hemiptera. Wings imperfect, or none. Quadrupeds. 



Hymenoptera. Tail oftert armed with a sting. Reptiles. 



COLEOPTERA. posHmperfect of their respective j Amphibians. 



Neuroptera. Pre-eminently aquatic. Fishes. 



(45.) 'W^hen groups so widely dissimilar as these 

 are brought into comparison, their analogies, of neces- 

 sity, are proportion ahly faint. Nevertheless, as they 

 strictly follow each other in the order of affinity, some 

 degree of interest attaches to them. The type of im- 

 perfection among the Ptilota, in reference to flight, is 

 certainly the coleopterous order, just as the amphibians 

 are the most imperfect of the vertebrate series. The 

 dragon flies, again, which stand at the head of the Nein-o- 

 ptera, are universally aquatic in their larva state, when 

 they are as great lovers of water as fishes are among the 

 Vertehrata. The poisonous stings of the iy^icsX Hymeno- 

 ptera are analogous to those of several serpents, which 

 not only have poisonous fangs, but actual stings at the 

 extremity of their tail. The analogies of tlie Hemi- 

 ptera to quadrupeds are altogether obscure, at least so far 

 as we can discover : but this is amply made up by the 

 striking relation of butterflies to birds. The reader of 

 our former volumes is, by this time, fully aware that 

 these tables of analogies are never equally striking in all 

 their parts, — some being strong, while others are faint. 

 In such cases, we either fall back upon our aflSnities, or 

 bring the series to other tests. This latter plan we shall 

 subsequently have recourse to, when comparing these 

 orders with those of the apterous class. 



(4f).) The position we have assigned to the order 

 Hymenoptera is that, however, of the greatest interest, 

 not merely as regards its situation among the Ptilota, but 

 its analogies to other animals. Singular as it may ap- 

 pear, there is no tribe of insects which — like the ox, 



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