SYSTEM OF INSECTS. 373 
Der. Metamorphosis varying. Larva a hexapod. 
Wings four in most, and reticulated with nu- 
merous areolets. : 
Prothorax distinct. 
Scapule and Parapleure parallel and. oblique. 
Tail of the female without a terebrant, or pun- 
gent multivalve ovipositor*. 
6. Hymenoptera? (Piezata F.). Mr. MacLeay con- 
-siders Sirex L. as being osculant between the Order we 
are now entering upon and the Trichoptera, and Ten- 
thredo L. as belonging to the latter. He appears to 
ground this opinion chiefly upon a consideration of their 
larvee and a slight difference in their ovipositor. As the 
Order, as settled by Linné, has always been deemed one 
of the most natural ones, and all the great Entomolo- 
gists of the present zera have agreed with him in thinking 
it so; it seems to me that to prove them mistaken in this 
opinion, the question should have been discussed at more 
length, and that it requires arguments of more weight than 
any Mr. MacLeay has at present produced, to set it 
aside. He appears in general to lay great stress upon 
an agreement in larvae and the kind of metamorphosis ; 
and I am ready to acknowledge that it forms a strong 
presumption in favour of any hypothesis of affinity be- 
tween certain tribes. But when it is had recourse to as 
fundamental and infallible, I think it is pushed far be- 
yond what it will bear, or is warrantable. I may be 
wrong; but in my apprehension, a striking agreement 
in their general structure in the perfect state, which is 
* The ovipositor of Raphidia seems merely calculated to introduce 
its eggs under bark ; it seems incapable of boring. 
From vgny, @ membrane. 
