No. 374.] THE WINGS OF INSECTS. 83 
and VI of the Redtenbacher system was demonstrated for the 
orders named, no use was made of the wing venation in the 
other orders of insects; and his lack of definite knowledge on 
the subject made him willing to admit that these veins might 
exist as secondary developments in those orders with fan-like 
wings. 
At last the time has come when we believe that we under- 
stand the homologies of the wing-veins in so large a proportion 
of the orders of insects that we are able to present a hypotheti- 
cal type to which the wings of all orders may be referred. And 
this type includes not only the principal veins, but also the 
chief branches of these veins. 
It should be borne in mind that our main object at this time 
is merely to trace the homologies of the wing-veins, to the end 
that a uniform nomenclature for all orders can be adopted, and 
also to enable us to make intelligent use in taxonomic work of 
the characters presented by them. We do not presume to say 
that we have definitely determined the peculiarities of the vena- 
tion of the wings of the stem form from which winged insects 
-have descended. We feel, however, that we have reached a 
sufficiently near approximation to this desired end to warrant 
our conclusions regarding the homologies of the wing-veins, 
and to enable us to commend a nomenclature for them which 
we believe can be accepted as final. 
In designating the wing-veins they may be either named or 
numbered. The simplest method is, doubtfess, to number 
them; and had the system which was proposed by Redtenbacher 
been based on a correct understanding of the primitive type, 
nothing better could be desired. But it was not; and, as several 
modifications of the Redtenbacher system are already in use, it 
seems doubtful if uniformity in numbering them could be soon 
brought about. 
From the great mass of names that had been proposed for 
the principal wing-veins, Redtenbacher selected a set of terms, 
to the acceptance of which no objection has been urged. It 
seems, therefore, that the surest way to bring about uniformity 
of nomenclature is to give up the attempt to apply a set of 
numbers to the wing-veins, and to use the names adopted by 
