1792 Insects. 



Affinities of the Stylopites, an Essay. By Edward Newman. 

 Preliminary Note. 



It is not a little remarkable that no calm rational enquiry has yet 

 been instituted into the affinities of the Stylopites. We have crude 

 hypothetical guessings to admiration ; we have moreover details of 

 structure, which, superficial though they be, at least possess the merit 

 of having dissipated the doubts with which the extraordinary descrip- 

 tions of earlier writers had obscured the truthful anatomy of the tho- 

 racic segments: but we have no essay in which the promulged hypo- 

 theses are supported by a review of facts ; we have no facts in econo- 

 my and structure availed of as a basis for logical deductions. I have 

 therefore endeavoured to embody in a more connected and complete 

 form than has yet been published, the verified observations of entomo- 

 logists, and to announce deductions which will now appear irresist- 

 able, however they may differ from prior surmises, whether of others or 

 my own, because these have always been founded on insufficient data. 



In the first place, I assume, as an abstract position, and totally in- 

 dependent of the question of affinities, that it is highly improbable, be- 

 cause at variance with the law of nature in other cases, that the nume- 

 rically insignificant group before us, should constitute a division of 

 the animal kingdom equal in grade to that of birds, or reptiles, or 

 fishes, or beetles ; I say improbable because we have no parallel in- 

 stance ; Ornithorhynchus, Echidna, Apteryx, Agaon, Hypocephalus, 

 Trictenotoma, Forficula, Aleyrodes, Pulex, Mantispa, all have their 

 affinities, all are related, perhaps distantly, but still certainly, to some 

 well-known, well-understood group; but the Stylopites at present 

 have no affinities ; they are regarded as constituting a class oi 

 themselves, as being an isolated group detached from the rest of the 

 animal kingdom : such was the view of Kirby and Latrielle, and such 

 I believe is the opinion of all naturalists capable of forming one. 

 think that the institution of classes for the reception of species, or small 

 groups of species, is to be traced, first, to an unwillingness to allow 

 nature sufficient scope in the variety of her modifications, and secondly 

 from our ignorance of kindred forms which certainly may, and proba- 

 bly do exist. These considerations demand that we should pause be- 

 fore accepting the hypothesis that the Stylopites stand alone. To me 

 it appears certain that this isolated position must be shaken by the 

 patient investigation of economy and structure, and the deduction o< 



