208 INSECTA. 
FAMILY I. 
SECURIFERA. 
Our first family is distinguished from the following ones by a ses- 
sile abdomen, or the base of which is joined to the thorax through- 
out its whole thickness, that seems to be a continuation of it and to 
have no separate motion *. 
The females are provided with an ovipositior that is most com- 
monly serrated, and which not only enables them to deposit their 
eggs, but likewise to prepare a place for their reception. The larvee 
always have six squamous feet, and frequently others that are mem- 
branous. . 
This family is composed of two tribes. 
In the first, that of the TenrHREDINETs, Lat., vulgarly termed 
Mouches-a-scie, or Saw-flies, we observe elongated and compressed 
mandibles ; a trifid or sort of digitated ligula; an ovipositor formed 
of two serrated, pointed blades, united and lodged in a groove under 
the anus. The maxillary palpi are all composed of six joints, and 
the labials of four; the latter are always the shortest. The wings 
are always divided into numerous cells. This tribe forms the genus 
Tenturepo, Lin. 
The cylindrical abdomen of these Insects, which is rounded poste- 
riorly, composed of nine annuli, and so closely joined to the thorax 
that the two seem to be continuous, the ragged appearance of their 
wings, the two little rounded, granular, and usually coloured bodies 
situated behind the scutellum, together with their heavy port, cause 
them to be easily recognized. ‘The form and composition of the an- 
tenn vary. Their mandibles are strong and dentated. The extre- 
mity of their maxille is almost membranous, or less coriaceous than 
their stem. Their palpi are filiform or nearly setaceous, and consist 
of six joints. The ligula is straight, rounded, and divided into three 
doubled portions, the intermediate of which is the narrowest; its 
sheath is usually short, and its palpi, shorter than the maxillaries, con- 
sist of four joints, the last almost bordering on an oval. The abdo- 
men of the female presents at its inferior extremity a double, moy- 
able, squamous ovipositor that is serrated, pointed, and lodged be- 
tween two concave lamine, forming its sheath or case. 
It is by the alternate action of the teeth of this ovipositor, that 
the Insect makes a number of little holes in the branches, and various 
* The segment, bearing the inferior wings, is separated from the following one or 
the first of the abdomen, by a transverse incisure or articulation. The other seg- 
ments then follow uninterruptedly, and without any particular strangulation, 
