OF MAl^JDIBULATA. 423 



vellous descriptions of Goedart and Degeer- Such a dis- 

 tribution of the Coleoptera may be said to be founded on 

 relations of analogy, which, on comparing the young j^me- 

 tabola with the larvas of the corresponding groups of Co- 

 leoptera, Avill be found as strong as those which exist be- 

 tween the classes of Mandibulata and Haustellata. The 

 distinction, however, between aflSnity and analogy, is per- 

 haps no where in Entomology more necessary to be at- 

 tended to than here ; since in terming larvte Chilomathi- 

 formes or Chilopodiformes, it is not meant that they are 

 Scolopendra or lull, or even near to them in affinity; but 

 only that they are so constiTicted that certain analogical 

 circumstances attending them strongly remind us of these 

 Ametabola. 



The only author who has to my knowledge placed the 

 order of Hymenoptera next that of Coleoptera is M. Cu- 

 vier. How he came to discover this affinity I know not; 

 but I suspect his reasons for it to have been founded on 

 very geneial considerations, since at the time his work 

 was published the Strepaiptera*' had scarcely been thought 

 of, much less studied. 



If further observations should prove Savigny to have 



* If the word Slrepsiptera is in these pages invariablj* used in preference 

 to Rhipiptera and Rhipidnpitra, names givi n to the same group by the 

 French entonaolosists, it is because the former word ha^ the right of se- 

 niority, because it is the name bestowed on these insects by the person 

 T.ho first gave us any definite notion of their place in nature, and in short 

 because it appears to be free from fault. JI. Latreille indeed says, that 

 the etymology of his name Rhipiptera rests on an incontestable fact; but 

 £0 does also Slrepsiptera, as will appear from the Mimoires both of himself 

 and M. Jurine on these insects. They both acknowledge that the organs 

 which have occasioned so much dispute among entomologists are used in 

 flying, and every pei-son agrees that they are distorted. I therefore ask 

 whether, according to the rules of the science, it be not our duty to adopt 

 the name originally given to the order by our learned countryman? For 

 ?ny part, until a fault shall be distinctly proved to aflect it, 1 shall always 

 adopt that name, whether French or English, which is supported by the 

 right of priority. 



