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CHAPTEE XVIII. 



THE LONGICORNES. 



THE members of this section present a considerable 

 family likeness to each other, chiefly on account of their 

 long antennae, which are never clubbed, but at most ser- 

 rated, being generally filiform or setaceous, and having 

 a long, thickened, basal joint. Their eyes are kidney- 

 shaped, or strongly hollowed out in the middle of their 

 front side, having the antennae frequently inserted in 

 the excavated portion, and sometimes entirely dividing 

 each eye into two parts ; their mandibles stout, sharp at 

 the point, and usually large, the head never being pro- 

 duced into a rostrum in front, as in the Rhynchophora. 

 The mentum is transverse and short, and the labium 

 usually membraneous and cordate; the palpi being 

 moderately long and filiform, though sometimes short 

 or truncated; the elytra, which are broader than the 

 thorax, do not encase the sides of the abdomen, which 

 is composed of five free ventral segments; the legs are 

 long, having often clavate femora, with the tibiae not 

 bearing external rows of spines, but distinctly spurred at 

 the apex; and the tarsi have the three basal joints 

 clothed with a dense silky or spongy substance, the first 

 and second joints being widened, the third strongly bi- 



