\'ol. XXX ] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS 69 



of the times that so many of our most learned physicists, 

 psychologists, and others, have accepted with blind faith, the 

 revelations of the spiritualist ''mediums," but I must confess 

 that I am still old-fashioned enough to be astonished at the 

 ready acceptance that even the most revolutionary ideas of 

 Handlirsch have met with at the hands of such eminent geol- 

 ogists and paleontologists as Schuchert, Lull and others who 

 seem to see nothing at all remarkable in the view that winged 

 insects were derived directly from Trilobites ! 



When it comes to the discussion of the lines of descent of 

 the saltatorial Orthoptera, however, I would more nearly agree 

 with Handlirsch in his conception of the interrelationships of 

 these insects. The Gryllidae (with the Gryllotalpids, etc.), 

 are undoubtedly very closely related to the Tettigoniidae (for- 

 merly called "Locustidae") and their allies, while the Tridac- 

 tylidae seem to be quite closely related to the so-called Acri- 

 didae and their allies. In certain respects, the Tridactylidae 

 occupy a position intermediate between the Acrididae and the 

 Gryllidae, but their Hne of descent parallels that of the Acri- 

 didae quite closely. I formerly proposed that the Acrididae 

 (and Tridactylidae) with their allies constitute an order of in- 

 sects distinct from that composed of the Locustidae and Gryl- 

 lidae with their allies ; but this is largely a matter of individual 

 opinion depending upon the value one places upon structural 

 diflferences. 



With regard to the relationship of the saltatorial Orthop- 

 teroid insects to their more primitive allies, it would appear 

 that such primitive "Locustoid" insects as Phasmodes are 

 very like Grylloblatta in many respects, and their line of de- 

 scent has been represented as though quite near that of the 

 Grylloblattids in the diagram. I find many evidences of a 

 rather close relationship between the Oecanthidae and the Gryl- 

 loblattidae, however, and it is very difficult to determine from 

 the evidence available whether the Grylloblattidae are more 

 closely related to the "Locustidae" or to the Gryllidae. Dr. 

 Walker has contended that the Grylloblattids and Locustids are 

 the more closely related, and a further study of the more primi- 



