4 THE CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS 



grub, or caterpillar, resembling Avorms in their earlier period of life more than 

 they resemble the perfect insects which are to grow out of them, and from that 

 condition passing into the state of immovable, mummy-like pupse, or chrysalids, 

 and during this period taking no food, but afterwards giving rise to a winged, 

 perfect fly, beetle, or butterfly, have been considered as insects with perfect 

 metamorphoses, and on that account have been brought together in one great 

 division. 



A glance at the classifications resting upon such considerations will show, that 

 each of these fundamental divisions contains insects, which, in their perfect condi- 

 tion, chew their food with powerful jaws, and others which are provided with 

 suckers to pump the more liquid nourishment upon which they live. It has long 

 been a question with me, whether the nature of the metamorphoses or the structure 

 of the jaws was to be considered as the prominent character on which to found 

 the primary divisions. It struck me as possible, that a classification, in which the 

 chewing insects should be brought together, and all sucking insects combined in 

 another group, and both then subdivided according to their transformations, might 

 lead to as natural an arrangement as a classification resting in its fundamental divis- 

 ions upon considerations derived from the metamorphoses alone. In order to satisfy 

 myself upon the importance of these two sets of characters, I have examined the 

 metamorphoses themselves, which various groups of insects undergo, and have been 

 deeply impressed with the fact, that most of those insects which undergo the so- 

 called complete metamorphoses are provided, in their early stages of growth, with 

 a chewing apparatus, which is gradually transformed into the various kinds of 

 suckers with which the perfect insects are provided. 



This led me to the question, whether the structure of this peculiar apparatus for 

 chewing food did not indicate, among insects, a condition of existence lower 

 than that of those insects which assume during their metamorphosis another type 

 of jaws in the shape of a sucker. And upon that suggestion I attempted an 

 arrangement of the different orders of insects, which seems to me not only more 

 natural, but to correspond more fully with the lessons of embryology. I propose 

 the following classification : — _ 



I. Cheiving Insects (Mandibulata). II. Suching Insects (Haustellata). 



Neuroptera, Hemiptera, 



coleoptera, diptera, 



Orthoptera, Lepidoptera. 

 Hymenoptera. 



The reason why Coleoptera have been so universally considered as the highest 

 among insects, is plainly shown by the position assigned to Cicindela, which is 

 placed at the head. That group is the most carnivorous of the order. But I do 

 not think it right to assign to the carnivorous insects the highest rank, if there is 

 no other reason to consider them as such than the fact, that among Mammalia the 

 Carnivora rank higher than the herbivorous animals. 



