436 ON THE TRIBES 



nus Proscojna, lately instituted by professor Klug of Ber- 

 lin, one of the first entomologists of the present day, proves 

 the proximity of Phasma to Truxalis; and no entomologist 

 is ignorant that the chain of connexion from Acridium to 

 Locusta, from Locust a to Jcheta, and from this to Blatta, 

 has been long since detected, and is now perfectly esta- 

 blished. Hence some notion may be obtained of the con- 

 tents of the Orthopterous circle, if we reckon the above-men- 

 tioned fiye genera as the types of the following tribes : 



1. Phasmina 



£. Acridina* 



3. Locustina 



4. Gryllina 



5. Blattina. 



But as this series returns into itself, and the Linnaean 

 genus Forficula cannot be inserted therein without dis- 

 turbing its regularity, we must agree with Degeer and 

 Mr. Kirby that it belongs to a distinct order. That this 

 order can only be esteemed osculant between the Ortho- 



* The types of this family are the Acrides of Aristotle, and present one of 

 the rare instances of an ancient name being properly applied in Entomo- 

 logy. Perhaps it is too late now to extend this plan ; yet a greater ser- 

 vice could not be rendered to Natural History than an edition of Aristotle's 

 Historia Animalium from the hands of an able zoologist. That excellent 

 ■work has been a sealed one to modern entomologists, principally because 

 the founders of our present nomenclature opened it not for the purpose of 

 study, but in order to save themselves the trouble of inventing new names. 

 They seem to have taken the old Aristotelian words at a venture, without 

 either considering their meaning or the context, and thus to have applied 

 them to the first insects that came in their way. Among innumerable 

 instances of this it may be stated that the true Attelabi were Orthopterous 

 insects, and probably the same with our tribe Gryllina, including per- 

 haps the Apterous Locusts. The Tettigometra, instead of being a distinct 

 genus, was, as its name implies, the Mother of the Cicada, in other words 

 the pupa : the Coleopterous insect, to which Aristotle applied the name of 

 Carabus, was the modern Lucanvs: Spnndylis, or rather Spondyte, was the 

 name given to the smaller Slaphylini allied to S. olens : the Clerus of the 

 ancients was the larva either of the GaUeria ctreana or Tinea alvea^ia : their . 

 Bostrichus appears to have been some male Lampyris, and their Necydalus 

 the hairy larva of some bombyx! 



