Origin of Insects

Abstract

MR. J. J. MURPHY, in writing “that it is true that the water-beetles are wingless” (NATURE, NO. 140, p. 373), has surely made a lapsus calami, since many waterbeetles are not only winged but use their wings. Other orders furnish examples of an aquatic winged insect fauna. The hemipterous genera Notonccta, Corixa, &c., are well-winged, and use their wings (especially Notonecta). Corixa affords an example of the elytra (i.e. the front wings) assisting in respiration, but probably not in the way that Mr. Murphy means. At the base of the anterior margin of the elytron there is a channel which retains a supply of air. Of course everybody knows the use of the elytra in Dytiscus to catch and retain air.