ACOKTISTA. 131 



more or less hyaline, the females opaque elytra and coloured wings ; consequently the 

 males cannot be attributed to their females with certainty unless caught in copula. 

 Moreover, great irregularities are apparent in the corresponding parts of the two 

 sexes, i. e. in two species with very similar females, A. concinna and A. mexicana, 

 the male of the first resembles somewhat its female, having maculated elytra and 

 coloured wings, adorned with rufous as in the female, while the male of the second is 

 very different from the female, having hyaline or clouded elytra and hyaline wings ; 

 and, conversely, A. concinna, $ , with broad elytra, has a male with very slender elytra, 

 while A. mexicana, $ , with narrower elytra, has a male with broad elytra. 



All the females have much the same typical coloration, the wings being anteriorly 

 brick-red, posteriorly dark brown, and partly hyaline. The brown colour sometimes 

 extends over the whole wing (A. truncata), or it may be reduced to a mere arcuated 

 band, leaving a great part of the posterior field hyaline (A. amoenula). It should be 

 mentioned that the brown parts of the wings are always of a very brilliant dark colour 

 (tortoise-shell-brown), with the transverse venulae white or hyaline. The abdomen of 

 the females is generally wide and dilated, sometimes more fusiform ; but in certain 

 cases it is very narrow, as in the males [A. amoenula). 



The males have membranaceous elytra, with the marginal field opaque-green (rarely 

 membranaceous), their costal margin becoming hyaline at its end. These organs seem 

 to be variable in each species, becoming more or less elongated and more or less slender 

 or broad. 



In the females the facial shield is characteristic, being either transverse, narrow, and 

 flat, or more elevated, and divided into three parts, which are excavated. In the males 

 this structure is more obsolete and less characteristic. 



In both sexes the supra-anal plate is rather prominent, but truncate and quite 

 transverse. 



The armature of the anterior legs is the most striking character of this genus. The 

 tibiae are furnished with numerous spines, which extend over their entire length ; those 

 of the exterior margin, sometimes eighteen in number, are truncated, very short, and 

 contiguous to each other, forming together a crenulated border, as in the African 

 genus Harpax. Stall, on this account, has removed the genus Acontista into the tribe 

 Harpaginse ; but we, as also Herr Brunner de Wattenwyl, regard it as belonging to 

 the true Mantinse. The anterior femora are stout, and the tibiae sufficiently long to 

 reach, when drawn inwards, as far as their base ; the claw, therefore, is not placed 

 between the first and second spines of the inner row of the femora, and, in consequence, 

 we find three discoidal spines only (comp. p. 124), and no sulcus on the inner face of 

 the femur. When the tibia is closed upon the femur, the claw is placed between the 

 discoidal spines and the first spine of the inner row. 



The species of Acontista appear to be numerous, and numbers of them certainly remain 



ss2. 



