

Dec, 1917 Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society 111 



Northern representatives of the group, show tinges of a honey- 

 yellow color, and from the foregoing instances it is evident that 

 the " honey-yellow to brown " hue is of widespread occurrence 

 among those forms which have departed but little from the an- 

 cestral condition of winged insects. 



Honey-yellow to brown is a color frequently found in the im- 

 mature stagies of the lowest Pterygotan insects such as the 

 Blattids and Plecoptera, and it is also very widespread among 

 the larvae of the higher forms, such as Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, 

 Siphonaptera, etc. Taken alone, this fact has no especial sig- 

 nificance, but in connection with the other instances here cited, 

 it lends additional weight to the view that the color in question 

 is a very widespread and primitive one. 



Honey-yellow to brown is a very common color in the lowest 

 representatives of the winged insects, such as the Blattids, 

 Mantids, Isoptera, Plecoptera, Embiids, Dermaptera, Gr5''llo- 

 blattids, Phasmids, etc., and this fact should have considerable 

 weight in such a discussion. The most convincing feature, how- 

 ever, is that the most primitive representatives of almost all of 

 the .orders seem to be of this color. Gryllohlatta, which is one of 

 the most primitive representatives of the " Orthopteroid " insects, 

 is of a honey>-yellow hue, and the same is true of Ithone, the most 

 primitive of the Neuroptera. The same color occurs in Merope, 

 which is an exceedingly primitive Mecopteron, and the "honey- 

 yellow to brown " color is very common among the Tipulids and 

 other primitive representatives of the Diptera. I have been 

 unable to examine the most primitive representatives of all of 

 the insectan orders, but the color in question occurs in so many 

 of the lowest forms which I have been able to examine, that I 

 feel confident that some, at least, of the most primitive repre- 

 sentatives of all of the orders will prove to be of a honey-yellow 

 to brown color, if the matter is investigated with this in view. 



A " blackish " shade is also very common among certain 

 primitive insects {e. g., Plecoptera, Embiids, Gryllids, Collem- 

 bola, etc.), and a "grayish" tint occurs among many of the 

 Apterygotan insects, being apparently a relic of their relation- 

 ship to the Isopod Crustacea, but the varying shades of brown- 

 ish yellow to brown are far more common among the Ptery- 



