June, 1919 Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society 97 
ment of suitable body-conditions, may have eventually enabled 
certain of them to adapt themselves to life in different media, 
and may have had considerable influence in their ability to pene- 
trate, and establish themselves in, regions. of cold and other un- 
favorable conditions. 
Whether metamorphosis is of a polyphyletic origin (as Hand- 
lirsch and other recent investigators are inclined to believe) o1 
not, is a question of some importance in determining the value 
of metamorphosis as an index of relationships. Personally, I 
consider that the presence or absence of metamorphosis is of 
secondary importance, since I believe that it may have arisen 
independently in some groups of insects; but there is some evi- 
dence for believing that its occurrence is of value in determin- 
ing relationships in some cases, since in the neuropteroid super- 
order (Neuroptera, Mecoptera, Hymenoptera, Diptera, Trichop- 
tera, Lepidoptera, etc.) all of its members exhibit a complete 
metamorphosis, and comparative anatomy clearly shows that these 
insects are descended from a common stem. On the other hand, 
comparative anatomy would indicate that the holometabolous 
Coleoptera are more closely related to the Dermaptera and other 
“non-metabolous” forms, than they are to the holometabolous 
neuropteroid insects mentioned above, and the Coleoptera should 
therefore be grouped in the plecopteroid superorder (Plecoptera, 
Embiide, Dermaptera, Coleoptera, etc.) rather than in the neu- 
ropteroid superorder, although the plecopteroid group probably 
contains the forms resembling the ancestors of the neuropteroid 
group as closely as any. 
As one of the reasons for considering that metamorphosis, or 
lack thereof, is not an important index of relationships among 
insects, the fact that a complete metamorphosis may occur in 
males of some Coccidz and not in females of the same species 
was mentioned. Certain investigators, among whom may be 
cited Berlese, 1913 (Redia, Vol. 9, p. 134), would interpret the 
character of the females in such cases as the result of an 
arrested development in body-form, while the ovaries have con- 
tinued to develop to functional activity. This state of affairs is 
in a measure comparable to a “neoteinic” condition of sexual 
maturity in a “larval” body, such as occurs in certain termites, 
