This book is
an attempt to understand the nature of insects, with emphasis on searching out the possible evolutionary pathways that have led to modern forms. Arthropods other than insects are treated in greater detail than a student of entomology usually encounters. If this book espouses any particular conclusions, they happen to be the ones that in the author's opinion seem to offer the best compromise. The principal thesis of the book is that the phylum Arthropoda represents a group that has arisen only
once, all the members of which have descended from an unknown common ancestor that has given rise to no other creature. |
