486 EXTERNAL ANATOMY OF INSECTS. 
of the head; which is situated behind the front, and, 
except where the communication is intercepted by con- 
fluent eyes, adjoins it. It is laterally bounded by the 
hind part of the eyes and the temples; and posteriorly, 
where that part exists, by the occiput. ‘The vertex may 
be denominated the ordinary region of the stemmata : 
for though in several cases, as we have just seen, one or 
more of them are planted in the front; yet this in the great 
majority, especially in the Hymenoptera, is their natural 
station. In Blatta and some other Orthoptera the poste- 
rior angle of the head is the vertex. In many dung- 
chafers of Latreille’s genus Onthophagus, which are said 
to have occipital horns, as O. nutans, nuchicornis, X1- 
phias, &c., the horn really arms the part I regard as the 
vertex. In Locusta this part is very ample, and in Truz- 
alis very long; but more generally it is small, and not 
requiring particular notice. 
v. Occiput*.—The occiput, or hind-head, is that part 
of the face that either forms an angle with the vertex 
posteriorly, or slopes downwards from it. It has for its 
lateral boundaries the temples, and behind it is either 
terminated by the orifice of the head, or in many cases 
by the neck. In those beetles that have no neck, as the 
Lamellicorn and Capricorn, the hind- head is merely a de- 
clivity from the vertex, usually concealed by the shield of 
the thorax, very lubricous, to facilitate its motion in the 
cavity of that part, and at its posterior margin distin- 
guished by one or two notches, which I shall notice 
hereafter, for the attachment of the levator muscles : but 
in those beetles or other insects that have a neck, or a 
4 Prates VI. VII. e. 
