248 
Mr. J. O. Westwood on the 
dowed also with the sense of touch, will clearly explain in every 
instance the agitation, delirium or stupor of the insect, it being in 
fact tantamount to a total deprivation of the faculties of hearing, 
feeling, and, I might almost add, of speaking. 
XL VII. Memoir on the Genus Holoptilus. By J. O. West- 
wood, F.L.S. he. 
[Read 2nd April, 1838.] 
The genus Holoptilus, belonging to the terrestrial section of the 
Heteropterous Hemiptera, is one of those singular groups, of 
which examples are to be found in almost every tribe of creatures, 
which not only attract attention from their peculiar forms, but 
at the same time baffle the naturalist in his endeavours to ar- 
range them with the existing well-determined families. This 
difficulty is of a twofold nature, resulting firstly from inaccurate 
observations on the structure of such groups, and, secondly, from 
their actual anomalous structure. 
The body of these exotic insects is of small size and depressed, 
and thickly clothed with acute rigid setae. The head is small, 
and narrowed behind into a short neck ; the eyes are round and 
very prominent. The ocelli in H. fuscus and Lemur are very 
distinct, glittering, and placed on the hind part of the head, at an 
equal distance from each other and from the lateral margin of the 
head. They also, as it appears to me upon a careful examination, 
exist in H. ursus , although their existence in that species is denied 
by Messrs. Saint Fargeau and Serville, who were only acquainted 
with that species. The rostrum is short and thick, scarcely ex- 
tending beyond the head, its tip being received in an impression in 
the front part of the prosternum. It consists of three joints, of 
which the basal one occupies more than two- thirds of the entire 
length of the organ, the two apical joints being very short. This 
is its structure, both in H. ursus and Lemur, although Saint Far- 
geau, Serville, and Burmeister, describe the second joint as by 
far the longest. I cannot discover any short transverse basal arti- 
culation, neither can I detect the labrum. The antennae are long 
and densely clothed with long rigid setae, varying in the propor- 
tion and apparently also in the number of their joints, as described 
more in detail below. The thorax is short, divided transversely 
into two portions, whereof the anterior is the shortest and nar- 
