172 INSECTA. 



them included. The females are provided with a serrated ovipositor. 

 MM. Randohr, Marcel de Serres, Leon Dufour, and Straus, have 

 studied the anatomy of several Insects belonging to this family. The 

 latter naturalist has not yet published the result of his investigations'. 

 The researches of M. Dufour are the most extensive and complete, at 

 least so far as respects the digestive system and the organs of gene- 

 ration. A proof of this is readily obtained by referring to his Memoir 

 entitled Recherches Anatomiques sur les Cigales, inserted in the fifth 

 volume of the Annales des Sciences Naturelles. We will not follow 

 this profound observer into the multitude of interesting details re- 

 specting their organization which he presents to us, and whicli he 

 ^companies with excellent figures, but restrict ourselves to the de- 

 scription of an anatomical character which appears to be exclusively 

 leculiar to these Insects. 



In all of them, according to him, the chylific ventricle or stomach 

 s remarkably long; it commences by a curved or straight, oblong 

 lilatation, and always terminates in an intestiniform canal, which is 

 [exed on itself in order to arrive at the origin of this same ventricle, 

 uto which it opens by the side of the insertion of the hepatic vessels, 

 not far from the commencement of the intestine ; they all have four 

 biliary vessels. In the Cicadre this ventricle has the figure of an ear, 

 of which the right side is dilated into a large lateral and frequently 

 plaited pouch ; its upper extremity is tied to the esophagus by a supe- 

 rior ligament, and the other leads to this narrow, very long, tubular, 

 reflected prolongation which has the form of an intestine, and Avliich, 

 after these circumvolutions, re-ascends to join that pouch near the in- 

 sertion of the hepatic vessels. This singular disposition of the chylific 

 ventricle, which, after several convolutions, empties into itself, in 

 continuing a complete circle traversed by the alimentary liquid, is 

 doubtless a diflficult matter to explain physiologically, but it is not the 

 less a well determined and constant fact, and one which forms the 

 most characteristic trait in the anatomy of the Cicada and other 

 Cicadariee. In tlie'Lec/ra aurita of Fabricius, ot Frocigale Grand- 

 diahle of Geoffroy, the inflated portion of the chylific ventricle is 

 placed directly after the crop, and there is but a single cluster of 

 salivary sacs on each side, a character also observed in the. Ce/Topi^ 

 spumaria, while in the Cicadae there are four, two on each side. In 

 ihe-Membracis cornutus the duodenal ear-like sac is replaced by a 

 large pouch, but also attached to the esophagus by a suspensory fila- 

 ment, a character exclusively peculiar to these Insects. 



Some— Can/a^nce.y— have antennee composed of six joints, and 



