372 ON THE ORDERS 



by the economy of their larvae. Such, then, is in all pro'-* 

 bability their true place in nature, though certainly my 

 opinion on the subject, for the reasons already stated, ought 

 to be received, as it is advanced, with great caution. The 

 Xenos beyond a doubt is, with the Sty lops, the most puzzling 

 insect to place naturally that we know ; it is truly an " animal 

 animum excrucians ; " and no better proof of this can be 

 given than that when Lamarck and Latreille make the Stre- 

 psiptera a division of Diptera, they seem absolutely to have 

 pitched on the most artificial situation for them which they 

 could have chosen. Latreille has remarked that the body 

 of the Strepsiptera bears a striking relation to that of some 

 Homoptera ; and to judge from the descriptions given by 

 Mr. Kirby of these insects, their wings are folded like 

 those of Orthoptera, while the form of their head resem- 

 bles that of some Neuroptera. To the Diptera they have 

 no visible affinity, and scarcely any analogy, except such as 

 we might expect from their proximity to the Hymenoptera. 

 How far T am right in adopting Mr. Kirby's opinion as 

 to their real affinities, remains yet to be seen ; but it is no 

 weak argument in support of its accuracy, that they pos- 

 sess the very precise kind of metamorphosis, which insects 

 in the hiatus between the Coleoptera and Hymenoptera 

 ought to have from analogy. 



The Strepsiptera ought probably to be considered as an 

 osculant order; and they undoubtedly form a group which 

 is apparently of much greater importance, and is marked 

 with much stronger characters, than the Dictuoptera. 

 These can scarcely be said to afford a type of any very 

 peculiar construction, and may therefore, perhaps, with 

 more propriety be viewed as an annectent tribe falling 

 into the extensive order of Orthoptera. 



