418 1NSECTA. 



almost filiform palpi, is sometimes arched and sometimes partly re- 

 ceived into the cavity of the prassternum. The eyes are ovoid or 

 round. The legs are contractile and short, and the tarsi flattened; 

 the lobes of the penultimate joint completely enclose the last. 



The body being flat above, these Insects, owing to the disposition 

 of their tarsi, are enabled to glue themselves to the surface of leaves 

 and to remain there without motion; besides this, the body is most 

 commonly orbicular or oval, and overlapped all round by the thorax 

 and elytra. The head is concealed under the thorax, or received 

 into its anterior emargination. Their colours are various, and are 

 prettily distributed in the form of spots, points, and streaks. Such 

 of their larvae as are known to us cover themselves with dirt. 



The Cassidarias are composed of two genera. In the first, or 



HISPA, Lin. 



The body is oblong, the head is entirely exposed and free, and the thorax 

 forms a trapezium. The mandibles have but two or three teeth; the exte- 

 rior maxillary lobe is shorter than the inner one; thf antennae are filiform 

 and pectinated anteriorly. The Hispse properly so called, have short man- 

 dibles terminated by two or three small and almost equal teeth. America 

 produces a great number of species. In some the superior surface of the 

 body, and even a portion of the antenna, are densely spinous. 



CASSIDA, Lin. Fab. 



The Cassidse are distinguished from the Hispse by the following characters. 

 The body is orbicular or almost ovoid, and in some few nearly square. 

 The thorax, more or less semicircular, or forming the segment of a circle, 

 entirely conceals and covers the head, or encloses it in an anterior emargi- 

 nation. The elytra, frequently elevated in the ' region of the scutellum, 

 project beyond the body. The mandibles present four teeth at least, and 

 the exterior maxillary lobe is at least as long as the inner one. 



In the second tribe, or the CHRYSOMELINJE, the antennas are re- 

 mote, and inserted before the eyes, or near their internal extremity. 

 These Insects never leap. Those species in which we find the 

 above mentioned characters, form, as in the earlier entomological 

 works of Fabricius, two genera. The first, or 



CRYPTOCEPHALUS, 



Is composed of Chrysomelinae, in which the head is plunged vertically 

 into an arched or hood-like thorax, in such a manner that the body, most 

 commonly in the form of a short cylinder, or almost ovoid and narrowed 



