PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
11 
articulated sheath of the sucker seen by former observers,* and afterwards the 
varied forms and distinct articulation of the antermas.f Duges’ observations, 
published a little later, corroborated and enlarged these data, although he fell 
into some errors, less of observation than of judgment4 Among these I should 
be disposed to reckon (if I may without presumption) the opinion first started 
by MacLeay,§ and countenanced by Kirby and Spence,|| that there are rudiments 
of wings, and a corresponding segmentation of the thorax, in the flea. I am 
disposed rather to assent to Strauss Durckheim’s remark, that the structure of 
the thoracic segments proves the abortion of wings to be normally complete, 
and not merely exceptional.^ At a later period, Duges corrected the most 
glaring error of his former anatomical description, and adduced grounds for 
modifying the interpretation of the central lancet, commonly qualified as a 
tongue.** He gave, at the same time, a valuable contribution to the general 
characteristic of the group, by demonstrating the analogous composition of the 
mouth of the Chegoe, with the significant difference of the abortion of the 
second pair of palpi. Other writers have contributed to the knowledge of this 
peculiar form in the group, which I myself have had but limited opportunity of 
studying. More lately, Westwood has figured the larva of Pulex, and demon¬ 
strated the mandibles,ff less exactly shown before in Eoesel’s figures. Last of 
all, Lacaze-Duthiers has examined the segmentation of the abdomen in these 
insects, as a distinct order, and has compared it with that of the other orders41 
Turning from the anatomical and physiological data to the systematical rela¬ 
tions deduced from them, we find Pulex ranked among the Aptera by Linnseus, 
who adopted and developed the alary system that Aristotle had sketched out. 
Eoesel, excluding apterous insects from the scope of his book, has yet illustrated 
the history of the flea, as a section of the Diptera, to which order he concludes 
that it is most nearly allied by metamorphosis and oral organization.§§ The 
very general adoption of this view by the German school of late vouches for 
the insight into deeper analogies, which the old artist had caught in this 
instance.HI] Degeer was the first who, shaping out what has been called an 
“ eclectic system,” from the combined consideration of the gradual develop¬ 
ment and the final type of organization, constituted a peculiar order (Suctoria) 
for Pulex and its affinities. While Pabricius, who also perceived the incon¬ 
gruity of the Linnean conglomeration of apterous insects, united Pulex with his 
Phyngota (Hemiptera), disregarding wholly the significance of the metamorpho¬ 
sis, and misinterpreting the composition of the mouth, in accordance with the 
common opinion of the time.^f^" Illiger, who threw out the first hint of the oral 
homology, which has fructified and wrought a revolution in the whole system, 
* British Entomology 114. a.d. 1826; and Kirby and Spence’s Introduction 
vol. 3, pi. 7, fig. 8. 
f British Entomology 417. August, 1832. 
J Annales des Sciences Naturelles, Zoologie Ser. 1. Tome 27. a.d. 1832, 1833. 
§ Horae Entomologicas 1, p. 357. 
|| Introduction to Entomology vol. 4, p. 383. 
I" Considerations generates sur l’Anatomie comparee des animaux articuKs 
etc., p. 9, 10. 
** Annales des Sc. Nat. Zool. Ser. 2. Tome 6. a.d. 1836, 1837. 
ft Gardener’s Chronicle a.d. 1848. 
Xt Annales des Sc. Nat. Zool. Serie 3. Tome 19, a.d. 1853. 
§§ Insekten Belust. Bd. 2. Muecken u. s. w., p. 10. 
1111 I have not noticed, as scientific guesses, either the aphorism which Eoesel 
quotes from a learned ancient, Athanasius Kircher, that the flea is a wingless 
cricket, not having been able to find the passage with its context in the 
Musurgia; nor yet the jester Wolcott’s pseudonymous report of another eminent 
man’s sentence, “ fleas are not lobsters,” the phrase being unnecessarily em¬ 
phasized, and the evidence apocryphal. 
fl Systema Entomologiae. a.d. 1775. 
