260 Prof. J. Wood-jNIason on the difference in form 



devoid of all traces of such lobes. Of tlie species dis- 

 criminated by Bnrmeister, all have the antennae truly 

 bipectinated in the males but three — Emptisa capensis 

 (an Idolomorpha with lobed legs), which is described 

 from females only, and the two species of Idolomorpha , of 

 which neither the sex, nor any particulars that will enable 

 one to guess at this, are given in the descriptions. 



By Serville* the antenna of the males of Empusa (in 

 which are also included species placed by modern v^nriters 

 in Gongylus and Idolomorpha) and of Blepharis, the 

 only two genera admitted by him, are described as 

 " ayant leur six ou sept (Empusa) dix (Blepharis) 

 premiers articles simple; les autres pectines de deux 

 cotes; chaque rameau etroit lineaire, termine en pointe 

 obtuse {Empusa), elargi, arrondi au bout {Blepharis).''^ 

 Of Serville's species, E. purpureipennis {^E. capensis, B.) 

 and E. defoliata belong both, without a doubt, to Idolo- 

 morpha; but both having been founded on female speci- 

 mens, the avithor could, of course, have had no opportunity 

 of observing the structure of the antenna? in the males. 



M. de Saussuref recognizes five genera in this group, 

 viz., Blepharis, Idolum,\ Gongylus, Empusa, and Idolo- 

 morpha, to the males of everyone of which he attributes 

 bipectinated antennee. He, like Bnrmeister, failed to dis- 

 cover any characters distinguishing Empusa. and Idolo- 

 morpha, and adopted Burmeister's original definition of 

 the latter, which, as Stal has recently shown, does not 

 embrace all the species naturally belonging to it, some, 

 such as /. Wahlbergi (and, I may add, /. capensis), having 

 the four posterior femora, and even the abdomen more or 

 less lobed, as in Empusa, and yet differing from the spe- 

 cies of that genus, and at the same time agreeing with 

 Burmeister's Idolomorplice in the structure of the head, in 

 the form of the genual lobes of the four posterior legs, 

 and, I may add, in the unipectinate character of the an- 

 tennae in the males. We accordingly find him describing 

 in the same work the two sexes of /. capensis as Empusa 



* Hist. Nat. des Orthopt. 18.39, pp. 140—148. 



\ Melanges Orthopt., i., 3me fasc. p. .327. 



j The male of Idolvm dirihoUevm {Blepharis domina, H. Wood- 

 ward, Q. J. G. S. 187r>, vol. xxxii. pi. ix, fig. 3, $ ) was unknown to de Saus- 

 sure, but a fine specimen from the White Nile in the National Collection 

 enables me to state that the teeth of the antennal pectinations are similar 

 in form to those of Bhjihnrh mrndica, its near ally. 



