31 6 NATURAL ARRANGEMENT OF INSECTS. 



would justify our placing Languria in this sub-family, 

 yet its general form is so dissimilar, it being very elon- 

 gate and linear, that we consider systematists ought to 

 find a more appropriate place for it. We cannot think 

 that, like Tritoma and Triplax, it is fungivorous. 



(282.) The Hispida are our fifth family, and, from 

 their close affinity to the Cassidce, thus complete, as we 

 have before observed, the circle. They are depressed 

 insects, with short legs, and porrect moniliform an- 

 tennae. The typical genus is usually surrounded by 

 spines, which give it a formidable appearance, as well 

 as a name. Although the structure of the perfect in- 

 sect associates it very closely with our first family, yet 

 the form and habits of its larva as widely separate 

 them ; for the larva of the present feeds, like that of 

 Haltica, between the membranes of leaves, upon their 

 parenchyma. This larva is robust and of a tapering 

 form, and undergoes all its transformations within the 

 leaves ; different species frequenting different plants. 

 The largest insect of the group is contained in this 

 family, in the Brazilian genus Alurnus^ which seems to 

 replace there the Hispa of the Old World ; and yet this 

 insect is only comparatively large ; and the character 

 of the whole group is to contain insects of small 

 dimensions. 



(283.) There being no greater difference between 

 Hispa and Cassida than we find between Haltica and 

 Galeruca, we may still hesitate whether we might not 

 introduce Sayra, and its affinities, into the place of the 

 Hispida, and transpose these into the circle of the 

 Cassida; but whether this be their confirmed position 

 or not, we cannot have a better opportunity to notice 

 the few conspicuous genera that would otherwise want 

 a locality. Sagra is eminently distinguished for the 

 enormous size of its posterior femora, and its long curved 

 posterior tibiae, thus greatly resembling the structure of 

 Leucospis and Chalcis among the Hymenoptera ; for as, 

 in them, this structure is unaccompanied with the power 

 ,of leaping, a similar incapacity and structure we observe 



