NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 61 NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. The Order Neuroptera. — It would be of much interest to myself and some other entomologists in New Zealand if a brief state-ment were made through the pages of the ' Entomologist ' as to what extent the breaking up of the old Order Neuroptera into a number of new Orders is generally approved by British entomologists. In the ' Cambridge Natural History ' the Order Neuroptera is dealt with in the broad sense, and is subdivided into families in accordance with the system followed by most of the older entomologists. Eecently, however, attempts have been made to raise most of these families to ordinal status and to give them new names. Eor example, we find the Perlidae spoken of as the Order Perlaria ; the Ephemeridae as the Order Plectoptera ; the Sialidae as the Order Megaloptera ; the Panorpidae as the Order Mecoptera, and so on. The Phryganidae have of course long been regarded by many writers as a distinct order, the Trichoptera and the Dragonflies as another Order — the Odonata, although even in these cases opinion does not appear to be by any means unanimous. It is almost impossible for workers out here to discriminate between the views of one or two special students and those of entomologists in general, and hence some authoritative statement on the questions I have raised would be very welcome. Incidentally, I gather from the writings of Mr. Lucas in your pages that the old Order Neuroptera has not been entirely abandoned, and also that the old family designations appertaining thereto are still in current use amongst British entomologists. — G. V. Hudson ; Welling-ton, New Zealand. [In vol. xlii, 1909, will be found an article by Dr. D. Sharp, giving a scientific scheme of the natural orders of insects, and since that time it has been the one employed by the ' Entomologist ' in its index, etc. In this scheme the heterogeneous Neuroptera of Linnaeus is broken up into its natural divisions. This scheme is in the main that proposed by Dr. Shipley in ' Zool. Anz.,' xxviii, 1904, and, as it is made use of in Prof. Sedgwick's ' Text-book of Zoology,' vol. iii, 1909, it has practically the sanction of Cambridge biologists. Dr. Sharp, we know, would like to amend the list of Orders in His ' Insecta ' if only the publishers would produce a new edition. Since 1909 Mr. Lucas has always used the term Neuroptera in its restricted sense, and we would very much like all our contributors to do the same. We append the list of Orders : Apterygota : Protura \ Collembola I Wingless insects supposed to have descended Campodeioidea [ from wingless ancestors. Thysanura j Anapterygota : Mallophaga \ wiagless insects whose ancestors were probably Anoplura & winged. Siphonaptera J
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