138 MODERN CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. 
females is straight, and often exserted; the antenne are nearly 
always filiform or setaceous, not elbowed, and composed (except in 
a few of the minute Adsciti) of more than sixteen (sometimes reaching 
to sixty) joints, and the pupa is enclosed in a cocoon; the body is 
~ 
M 
§ 
| 6 
4 




long and narrow; the head is small and free ( fig. 75. 2. front, and 
75. 3. hind part of head); the eyes more or Jess prominent and 
lateral. The antenne very seldom exceed the body in length; they 
are slender and filiform, except in a very few species, which have 
them more or less compressed, dilated in the middle or clavate ; they 
are never elbowed, the basal joint being short, although thicker than 
the rest. In some species the males, and in others the females, are 
distinguished by having a broad annulus of white beyond the middle 
of the antenne.* The parts of the mouth are small; the labrum 
(fig. 75. 4.) is very rarely entirely exserted, being ordinarily covered 
by the front margin of the clypeus; the mandibles (fig. 75. 5.) are 
generally slender and curved, narrowed to the tip, where they are 
bidentate; the maxillz are terminated by two membranous lobes 
(jig. 75. 6.); the maxillary palpi are long and pendulous, and gene- 
rally 5- or 6-jointed; the labium (fig. 75. 7.) is composed of a cor- 
neous elongated mentum of variable form, terminated by a generally 
quadrate membranous ligula, which is entire, or at least but slightly 
emarginate in some species; the labial palpi are 3- or 4-jointed. 
The thorax forms an oval mass; the collar is very short and annular ; 
the mesothoracic scutelluin is generally prominent, and often coloured 
different from the rest of the thorax; the wings are of moderate size ; 
* G. H. K. Thwaites, Esq. has informed me that he has reared two females of 
Cryptus bellosus (Curtis, 668.), one of which had the antennz annulated and the 
other entirely black. 
