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Then without expressing his views as to the position and affinities of the Lepismidæ, he remarks "as the upshot of all this, then, while the Collembola are clearly more nearly allied to the Insecta than to the Crustacea or Arachnida, we cannot, I think, regard them as Orthoptera or Neuroptera, or even as true insects.
If, then, we attempt to map out the Articulata, we must, I think, regard the Crustacea and Insecta as continents, the Myriopoda and Collembola as islands of less importance, but still detached.
Or, if we represent the divisions of the Articulata like the branching of a tree, we must picture the Collembola as a separate branch, though a small one, and much more closely connected with the Insecta than with the Crustacea or the Arachnida." Lamarck regarded them as more nearly allied to the Crustacea than Insecta.
We must, indeed, in my opinion, separate them entirely from one another; and I would venture to propose for the group comprised in the old genus Podura, the term Collembola, as indicating the existence of a projection, or mammilla, enabling the creature to attach or glue itself to the body on which it stands."
That is to say, the Coleoptera, Orthoptera, Neuroptera, Lepidoptera, etc., are in my opinion, more nearly allied to one another than they are to the Poduridæ or Smynthuridæ. On the other hand, we certainly cannot regard the Collembola as a group equivalent in value to the Insecta.
The next group, the Podurelles of Nicolet, and Collembola of Lubbock, are considered by the latter, who has studied them with far more care than any one else, as "less closely allied" to the Lepismidæ "than has hitherto been supposed." He says "the presence of tracheæ, the structure of the mouth and the abdominal appendage; all indicate a wide distinction between the Lepismidæ and the Poduridæ.
Entomologists will be glad to learn that he is shortly going to press with a volume on the Poduras, which, in distinction from the Lepismas, to which he restricts the term Thysanura, he calls Collembola, in allusion to the sucker-like tubercle situated on the under side of the body, which no other insects are known to possess.
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