116 Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society Vol. XII 



THE PROBABLE COLOR OF THE ANCESTRAL 

 WINGED INSECTS.* 



By G. C. Crampton, Ph.D. 



It would appear extremely probable that many (if not most) 

 of the ancestral Pterygotan insects varied from honey-yellow to 

 brown in color. The reasons for so thinking are as follows: (i) 

 Honey-yellow to brown is a common color among the Chilopods, 

 which have departed but little from the ancestral condition of 

 insects in general. (2) Honey-yellow is a common color among 

 the Apterygotan insects, which have departed but little from the 

 ancestral condition of the Pterygotan insects. (3) Honey-yellow 

 to brown is a color frequently occurring in immature insects. 

 (4) Honey-yellow to brown is a common color among the most 

 primitive orders of winged insects. (5) Honey-yellow to brown 

 is a common color in the most primitive representatives of almost 

 all of the orders of winged insects — even of the higher orders! 



That honey-yellow to brown is a common color among 

 Chilopods is at once apparent to anyone who examines a speci- 

 men of Scutigera, Scolopendra, etc., or any of the common 

 Chilopods found under stones or dead wood in the neighborhood. 

 This is not so evident in the case of the Apterygotan insects, 

 however, since so many of them are colorless, due to their habit 

 of hiding in places protected from the sunlight, and their shel- 

 tered habitats make it unnecessary for them to develop a harder 

 protecting chitinous armor, which is always more deeply pig- 

 mented than thinner chitin. Nevertheless " CoUembolan " in- 

 sects, such as Smynthurus, Orchesella, Deegeria, etc., have a 

 yellowish or brownish hue, and the more heavily chitinized speci- 

 mens of Campodea are of a honey-yellow color. This shade 

 also occurs in the more strongly chitinized terminal segments of 

 Japyx, and I have seen a large Cuban Japygid which is entirely 

 yellowish brown in color. The chitinous sclerites of the tropical 

 Lepismids which live somewhat more "exposed" lives than our 



* Contribution from the Entomological Laboratory of the Massachusetts 

 Agricultural College, Amherst, Mass. 



