On the Morphology and Classification oflRhynchota. 225 XXII.--On some new Fundamental Principles in the Morpho-logy and Classification of Rhynchota. By Professor J. C. SCHIIDTE*. I. IN all the large independent works, as well as in the numerous minor treatises, by which Latreille has founded the natural system of the articulated animals, there is an undercurrent of merely indicated scientific views, which he has abstained from working out, either because time and material failed him, or because he lacked the necessary courage and confidence in his own ability to get over some mistake of observation, often an entirely accidentai one, which had stopped his progress. Thus, for instance, his exceedingly ingenious theory of the "segment m�diaire," which, rightly understood, solves so many hard morphological knots, and is of such comprehensive and useful application in classification, has had the fate of being rejected by such anatomists as Burmeister, Westwood, Straus-Diirckheim, Lepelletier de St. Fargeau, Newport, Spmola, and Lacordaire, only because he was unable to sup-ply that conclusive element which was required to give it scientific certainty and support it by decisive proof-namely, the demonstration of the apparently missing pair of spiracles between the second and third thoracic rings in Piezata t. There are other cases where Latreille has incidentally pointed out the imnortance of certain features in the structure of in-sects which are more easily investigated, and where these indications, which the great French naturalist had left unde-veloped, have been investigated by subsequent authors; but they have rarely done more than accumulate descriptive de-tails. As an example we may adduce a passage in 'Le R�gne Animal' (nouv. �d. 1829, tom. iv. p. 306), where, after having treated of the relation between the epimera and the segments of the body, he continues in this manner :-" Les relations de ces parties, la grandeur et la forme du premierarticle des hanches, la mani�re dont elles s'articulent avec ledemi-anneau dont elles d�pendent, l'�tendue et la direction dece demi-anneau variant, le thorax consid�r� sous ce point devue, pr�sente une combinaison de caract�res, qui est tr�savantageuse pour la m�thode." The indication of the differ-ences in the mode of articulation of the limbs with the bodywhich is contained in these words was never more fully * Translated from 'Naturhistorisk Tidsskrift,' ser. 3, vol. vi. 1869.Copenhagen. f Sec 'Proceedings of the Royal Danish Society of Sciences, 1856,p. 135. Ann & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 4. Vol. vi. 15
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