OF THE ANNULOSA. 36l 



adopting it, when 1^ found that the opposite method wholly 

 disregarded the nature of the metamorphosis. The ques- 

 tion with him was, whether a general distribution, evi- 

 dently natural, ought to be abandoned when we cannot 

 make it in detail to coincide with the truth. He judged 

 in the afBrmative ; but being fortunate enough to have 

 taken no other guide for his opinion than nature, he has 

 been the first to remark that he erred in his decision. 

 M. Latreille is too justly celebrated for scientific candour, 

 the greatest possible merit of a naturalist, not immedi- 

 ately to have published to the world his admission of 

 the classes of MM . Cuvier and Lamarck, on being sen- 

 sible that their accuracy is not necessarily affected by the 

 difficulty experienced in the attempt to reconcile them 

 with other truths. To expect that all his followers will 

 investigate the grounds on which he has altered his opinion 

 may perhaps be going too far; but it is perfectly allowable 

 to hope that they will henceforward adopt this division of 

 Insects into Mandihulata and Haustellata, now that it hap- 

 pens to be published in the Nouveau Dictionnaire d'His- 

 toire Naturelle, art. Entomologie, and still more lately also 

 in the excellent dissertation which this great naturalist in- 

 tends as a preface to his proposed Species Irisectorum. 



Having little ambition to invent new names, and being 

 very reluctant to encumber the science with them unne- 

 cessarily, J have made use of the words Mandibulata and 

 Haustellata, which M. de Clairville first applied to these 

 two classes comprising all the Winged insects. The Fabri- 

 cian terms OdontataiexiA Rhyngota might have answered 

 equally well ; but^iiaving had in the first case a more li- 

 mited signification given to them by their author, the fear 

 of confusion must be my apology for rejecting them. 



