MR. A. MURRAY’S MONOGRAPH OF THE FAMILY OF NITIDULARLE. 217 
The ligula is well seen in its simplest state in Wacrostola straminea. Figs. 7e & Te** 
of Plate XXXV. show the under or, rather, outer side of it—that is, the side next the 
ground; the two corner pieces at the tip are parts of the paraglosse, seen behind; 
suppose these away, the simple ligula remains. If that be turned over, fig. 7 e* is then 
seen, which is the united paraglosse, in this instance allowing no part of the ligula to 
beseen. From each of the anterior angles of the ligula springs, in most of the species 
of Nitidularie, a translucent membranous lobe or wing. How this is attached is a 
point on which I am not yet satisfied. In some it appears to be merely a continuation of 
the ligula, as if it were expanded into this lobe, its corneous substance thinning off by 
imperceptible degrees; in others it seems to invest it to the very 
base, like a gown folded around it (see Plate XXXIV. fig. 5 c*); in E 
many, probably in all, it has a certain amount of lateral motion. { Sos, 
My idea of the nature of these membranous lobes is that they are \ ` 
composed of a double fold of membrane, attached to the front and — 
back of the ligula somewhat in the manner shown in fig. 5*. In 
some species the outer edge of this double fold is united, while the 
inner is open, like the mouth of a bag; in others it is disunited on both edges, as if cut 
asunder at the fold; and in others, again, and that the most numerous body, both sides 
appear to be united and soldered together. We see the first of these conditions in the 
Australian Brachypepli (see Pl. XXXIV. figs. 10e &5 6*5), in Haptoncus (Pl. XXXIII. 
fig. 7 e*), in Colastus (Pl. XXXIV. fig. 1 e), and in Cilleus megacephala, where it looks like 
a moveable fringed hood (Pl. XXXV. figs. 4e* & 4 e**); I think we see the second, like 
double plates, in Calonecrus (Pl. XXXII. fig. 9 © and in Halopeplus (Pl. XXXV. fig. 10); 
and we see the last in Carpophilus (Pl. XXXII. fig. 10 e), in Brachypeplus rubidus 
(Pl. XXXIV. fig. 6 e*), in Carpophilus (Stauroglossa) terminalis (Pl. XXXIII. fig. 4c), 
where it takes the form of a rounded hammer, and in many others. I do not suppose 
that in the figures which I have given of my dissections of these parts I have never been 
mistaken, but I claim the credit of having literally put down what I thought I had seen; 
and I regard. as a merit what may by some be attributed to me as a fault, that I have 
never filled up blanks with details which I did not see, but which, according to the ascer- 
tained anatomy in other species, I might have assumed to be there. For systematic ar- 
rangement the ligula and paraglosse afford characters of variable value. In some genera 
or sections, as Carpophilus for instance, they vary considerably without any other feature 
suffering a corresponding variation. In others they preserve a well-marked uniformity 
confined to the species of one genus; or the characters reappear in some distant genus 
in another section, indicating affinities which would not otherwise have been suspected, 
asin Colastus and Psilotus, which belong to different sections of the family, look very 
unlike, and yet both have the same maxille, ligula, and paraglossx, and these of a pecu- 
liar and unusual structure. i 
Epistoma and Labrum.—In all the tribes of the family, except the pide, the labrum 
is exposed, transverse, and usually bilobed ; in the Zpide the epistome projects over the 
labrum, concealing it from view. 
Mentum.—The mentum is sometimes very much developed, as in Prometopia, and 
