1890.] THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



3i 



common worm-like ancestor. We are not yet in a position to assert 

 that all arthropods have descended from a common ancestor ; though 

 this is possible; it is equally possible, nay we may say equally probable 

 that the arthropods fall into two great divisions, each descended from 

 a worm-like ancestor; one of these includes the crustaceans and 

 arachnidans ; the other, with which we are now more immediately 

 concerned, includes the myriapods, the insects, and the remarkable 

 group which probably represents their common ancestral type, the 

 genus Pevipatus. Granted the existence in early Silurian if not Cam- 

 brian times of a Peripahis, it is easy to trace from that, the many widely 

 different forms of insect and myriapod life. 



Doubtless if the geological record were complete, the details of this 

 genealogy might be more fully recognised but we know enough to 

 justify us in asserting, incredible though it seem, that the wings of 

 insects are neither more nor less than gill-leaflets ; originally adap- 

 tations for aquatic life, subsequently modified for propultion, at last 

 utilized for flight and in the most highly specialized forms, Coleop- 

 tera and Lepidoptera, objects whose beauty and brilliant colours, fill 

 our minds with other sensations than those with which we usually 

 contemplate the brutal struggle for existence. 



P. S.— Since writing this paper, my attention has been called to the fact that 

 Mr. J. E, Robson, editor of the " Young Naturalist" had suggested a similar hypothesis 

 as to the origin of wingless insects. I refer to his very able article in the "Young 

 Naturalist " for 1886. If anything could confirm my belief in the accuracy of the 

 view I have taken on this question, it would be the fact, that Mr. Robson should 

 have, years ago, arrived at the same conclusion, working on quite independent lines. 



Linn.eus Greening. 



116, Bewsey Road, 

 W avvington . 



ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 



January 15th 1890 — 57th Annual Meeting of the Society. The Right Honble. 

 Lord Walsingham, F.R.S.. President, in the chair. An abstract of the Treasurer's 

 accounts, showing that the finances of the Society were in a thoroughly satisfactory 

 condition, was read by Dr. Sharp, one of the Auditors, and the Report of the 

 Council was read by Mr. H. Goss. It appeared therefrom that the Society had lost 

 during the year several Fellows by death and had elected 24 new Fellows ; that the 

 volume of Transactions for the year extended to nearly 600 pages, and comprised 23 

 memoirs, contributed by 20 authors and illustrated by 17 plates ; and that the sale of 

 the Society's Transactions and other publications is largely on the increase. It was 

 then announced that the following gentlemen had been elected as Officers and 

 Council for 1890 :— President, The Right Honble. Lord Walsingham, M.A., F.R.S. ; 

 Treasurer, Mr. Edward Saunders, F.L.S. ; Secretaries, Mr. Herbert Goss, F.L.S., 



