NEPINA. 47 



segments after the same type as KepkJte, but the last segment is posteriorly 

 obtuse. Geu. 1, Ranatra. 



Family 2.— NEPID^. 



Long-oval, flat, tbiu. Antennce : second joint produced laterally 

 at the end into a long falcate process ; third nearly as long as, and 

 incumbent on, the second. Myes moderate, reniform, prominent. 

 Nostrum almost vertical, conical. Pronotuon broad-trapeziform : 

 the first two thirds with longitudinal callosities, the last third flat, 

 inerassated at the sides ; posterior margin slightly concave. Scu- 

 tellum large, triangular. Elytra flat, as long as the abdomen, reti- 

 culated throughout ; Emljolium long, parallel, indistinct on the iipper 

 side ; Membrane indistinctly separated from the Corium. Sternum : 

 Prosternum posteriorly retuse, xyphus rounded ; Meso- and Meta- 

 sternum transverse. Legs : first pair ; coxc^ stout, not half the 

 length of the thighs; tliighs inerassated, suddenly smaller towards 

 the apex ; the groove wide ; tiblce curved ; tarsi digitate : — second 

 and third pairs longest, simple ; coxce subglobose ; tarsi long and 

 slender; da us thin. 



Abdomen beneath, with a depressed middle keel ; the first and second 

 segments anchylosed, so that there appear to be but five abdominal seg- 

 ments ; the posterior margin of each concave above, augularly excised 

 beneath, except tlie last. Genital segments in $ and 9 outwardly of the 

 same form. Above, in the middle of the last abdominal segment, Hes a 

 small, triangular, pointed plate, which (according to f lor) is the only 

 visible part of the third genital segment, the rest of its development being 

 under the second segment for nearly its whole length ; the second seg- 

 ment, large, subtriangular, cleft up the middle, but not parted, projects 

 far beyond the points of the last abdominal segment, and forms the apex 

 of the abdomen, a spinose point lying on eacli side of the terminal fila- 

 ments ; beneath, this segment appears as two long, narrow, triangular 

 lateral plates, grooved on their iniier margins, the space between them 

 filled by a long, triangular, convex plate, wliose side margins fit into the 

 groove of the eide plates ; the first segment and the generative organs 

 are covered by the second segment. Gen. 1, Nepa. 



