420 Dr. David Sharp on the structure of the 



are some points of interest that may be alluded to with 

 advantage. 



The great variety seen is most remarkable. The forms 

 I have described are merely such as I happened to have 

 at hand, and were not selected to give any idea of the 

 variety that exists in the Pentatomidce ; indeed, they do 

 not do so, for I have, since the descriptions were made, 

 examined a iew other members of the family, and find 

 some of them to be quite different from anything here 

 delineated. They are also very different from anything 

 that exists in Coleoptera, and no similar system of 

 arrangement of the parts has been described, so far as I 

 know, in other insects. 



Another point that strikes the attention is the fact 

 that in some species, especially in the genera Edessa and 

 Nczara, the structures appear to be of an ornamental 

 character. 



On comparing a heteroiDterous hemipteron with a male 

 insect of another order — a beetle, say — an important 

 difference will be observed, viz., that one whole segment 

 of the body is greatly separated from the other segments, 

 and entirely devoted to the reception of the male parts, 

 but the parts are not withdrawn completely into the 

 body; indeed, the greater portion of the segment is 

 exposed, and the part of it in which the structures I 

 have described are situated is left uncovered, except by 

 the membranous tips of the upper wings. It must be 

 noted, too, that in all cases where there is a complex 

 ornamentation of the parts, they are freely exposed, and 

 not covered by the tips of the wing-cases. In the 

 Scutellcrina, where the scutellum assumes such extra- 

 ordinary dimensions that it entirely covers the body, the 

 terminal segment is, like the other parts, covered by the 

 monstrous scutellum ; but in the PlataspiiKe, where the 

 scutellum is quite as greatly developed as it is in the 

 Scntellerime, perhaps even more so, the parts are not 

 covered by it, but are exposed on the perpendicular 

 extremity of the body, or are even placed on the under 

 surface ; and in Edessa and Nezara the posterior aspect 

 of the segment is not covered in any way, though appa- 

 rently it can be concealed occasionally by bending down 

 the delicate tips of the wings which usually project 

 beyond it. 



It may be proper here to notice that in the male 



