Insects. 2693 



at this point :* below the subcostal nervure is a third, interrupted and 

 forked at a little more than half its length, both branches reaching 

 the outer margin of the wing: besides these there are three other 

 nervures, and all the six, when the wing is extended, radiate from the 

 base to the exterior margin of the wing. This character of hind wing 

 is normally and solely Coleopterous ; in fact so precisely is the hind 

 wing constructed after the Coleopterous type, — indeed so nearly does 

 it resemble in miniature the hind wing of a Ripiphorus, a Mordella or 

 a Cantharis, — that no entomologist would think any slight discrepancy 

 he might observe sufficient to warrant its separation from either of 

 those genera. And here I cannot but regret the absolute ignorance 

 which prevails respecting the neuration of the hind wings of Coleop- 

 tera : we have really no knowledge of the important characters which 

 these veins possess ; we have no nomenclature of these veins : and I 

 am unable to do more than beg my readers to institute a comparison, 

 and it cannot be too rigorously exact, between the wings of Halicto- 

 phagus, as portrayed in Mr. Curtis's beautiful figure, and those of ac- 

 tual specimens of the Coleopterous genera I have mentioned. I am 

 convinced the candid inquirer, after such a comparison, will arrive at 

 the same conclusion as myself. 



It therefore results, from a comparison of the wings and wing- 

 bearing segments of Stylops with those of insects belonging to the 

 seven received classes, that the structure of this curious insect ap- 

 proaches the ordinary structure of Coleoptera, and recedes from the 

 ordinary structure of the rest, — Orthoptera alone offering any points 

 of similarity, and these points of similarity being few and isolated. 

 In fine, it may be stated that the discrepancies between the wings 

 and wing-bearing segments of Stylops and those of Coleoptera are 

 differences in degree, whereas compared with others of the other 

 classes they are differences of kind. Stylops cannot be associated 

 in an alary system with Lepidoptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera, Orthop- 

 tera, Hemiptera or Neuroptera : to me it appears absolutely necessary 

 that they should associate with the Coleoptera ; the evidence of de- 

 sign in system requires their association with one of the classes, and 



* I would here call the attention of entomologists to the interesting fact that this 

 capability of transverse folding is not availed of in several Coleopterous genera, the 

 wings being folded loosely and longitudinally on the abdomen. I have observed this 

 to be the case in Necydalis, Hesthesis, Heliomanes, Rhipidius, Myodites, and many 

 others ; but, as in Halictophagus above described, the interruption of the main alary 

 nervures indicates a structural affinity to that great class in which the transverse 

 folding of the hind wings is a prominent although rarely noticed character. 

 VIII I 



