OF EXTRA-EUROPEAN TRTCIIOPTERA. 



99 



study of Trichoptera, and which can often be explained intel- 

 ligibly by a few strokes of the pencil, however inartistic these may 

 be, when words fail to illustrate the meaning. 



It may not be out of place here to say a few words on the 

 systematic position of the Trichoptera. The remarks that fol- 

 low have, to a certain extent, been excited by a recently published 

 American work, by Dr. J. S. Packard, jun., entitled a 1 Gruide 

 to the Study of Insects,' a work strikingly original in its concep- 

 tion, and one which will doubtless do much towards furthering 

 the already rapidly increasing taste for entomological studies in the 

 United States. But it is necessary, first of all, just to glance at 

 the position generally accorded to the Neurvptera. It has long 

 been seen that the order, as defined by Linne, is composed of 

 most incongruous materials ; and Erichson attempted an ame- 

 lioration of this condition by grafting all those families with in- 

 complete metamorphosis upon the Orthoptera, still maintaining 

 the two orders in juxtaposition. Since his time various authors 

 have made this division, termed pseudo-Neuroptera, a veritable re- 

 fuge for the destitute. To it have been added, from time to 

 time, Jilallophaga, Thysanura, Thysanoptera, and even the Strep- 

 siptera, for no other reason, so far as I can see, than that they 

 would not fit in satisfactorily elsewhere ; and the characters of 

 the order being so elastic, it was easy to find some peculiarities 

 which gave these outlying families admission therein. That the 

 Linnean families grouped now with Orthoptera have more affinity 

 thereto than to the Neuroptera as usually constituted, is evident ; 

 yet I see no reason whatever why the Odonata should not form 

 an order apart, possessing, as they do, characters absolutely sui 

 generis. The admission of them into Orthoptera renders an already 

 heterogeneous order an absolute chaos. For my part, I have 

 been content to consider the Neuroptera as an order, in the Lin- 

 nean sense, divisible into three great divisions, pseudo-Neuroptera, 

 Planipennia, and Trichoptera, — but this only as matter of con- 

 venience ; for I am convinced that contained therein are consti- 

 tuents of several orders, each of equal value with such as Lepi- 

 doptera and Coleoptera, and that the day will arrive when, from 

 an increase of knowledge in embryology and anatomy, the order 

 Neuroptera, as constituted by Linne, will be scattered widely — a 

 dismemberment that would have occurred long since, only that 

 there still exists a lingering disinclination to thoroughly upset the 

 Linnean system. 



