440 ON THE TRIBES 



the a bo ve three insects should eventually prove to be the types 

 of their respective osculant orders, they may in conformity 

 to the method in common use be styled Bomboptera, Me- 

 galoptera Lat., and Raphiopiera. As for Mantispa, I can 

 scarcely conceive it to offer any type of form distinct from 

 Mantis, from which indeed it only differs in having the 

 wings of a Neuropterous insect. It is therefore an insect 

 in the tribe of Phasmina, close to the osculant points of the 

 orders of Orthoptera and Neuroptera. I shall only here 

 add, that while from the inspection of this chain of affini- 

 ties several deductions may be drawn, that particular one 

 which seems to be of paramount importance to Natural 

 History, is the artificial nature of the term Order as usu- 

 ally applied in an insulating sense. In Entomology, at 

 least, an order can only be called natural when the epithet 

 is assigned to a certain group, which, without being in- 

 sulated, has in it one principal ganglion, whose character 

 is in some degree imprinted on the whole of the contents. 

 Thus the types of the five orders of Mandibulata may be 

 represented by a Carabus, Pompilus, Phryganea, Libel- 

 liila, and Locust a. 



We have now completed a hasty sketch of the tribes 

 into which the Mandibulata may hereafter with more cer- 

 tainty be subdivided. The review of them, however, 

 affords a simple method of designating the orders, which 

 hitherto I had only indicated by their analogical relations. 

 Coleoptera Larva varia . . . Metamorphosis incompleta 

 Orthoptera Larva hexapodes . Metamorphosis semicornpleta 

 Neuroptera Larva hexapodes . Metamorphosis varia 

 Trichoptera Larva erucifonnes Metamorphosis obtecta 

 Hymenoptera Larva apodes . . . Metamorphosis incompleta. 



The beauty of this natural disposition is, that the above 

 three columns are so many chains of connexion, the vari- 



