232 IXSFXTA. 



undertaken at my request, by the late Lachat. His friend, 

 M. Victor Audouin, has prosecuted his researches and pre- 

 sented to the Academic des Sciences an excellent memoir on 

 the subject. All that is yet known of it however is from the 

 general sketch given by the Baron Cuvier in his report(l) 



(1) The exposition of the parts of the thorax, and a fixed nomenclature created 

 for them, says the Baron in his report, should naturally be placed at the head of 

 the work The trunk of Insects is always divisible into three annuli, each of which 

 bears a pair of legs, called by M. Audouin, from their position, the prothorax, the 

 mesothorax, and the metathorax- Besides these leg's, the mesothorax bears the first 

 pair of wings, and the metathorax the second. Each of these three segments is 

 composed of four parts: one inferior, two lateral (forming the pectus), and a 

 fourth superior, which constitutes the back; the inferior is called the sternum,- the 

 lateral portion, or the fiank, is divided into three principal parts, one which is 

 attached to the sternum, called epistemum, another behind the first, and to which 

 the coxa is articulated, the epimera (epim^re). A little movable piece, hitherto 

 unknown, which serves to unite the epimera and the coxa, is named irochantinus, 

 (trochantin) by way of distinguishing it from trochanter. The third piece of the 

 flank, which in the mesothorax and metathorax is situated before the epistemum 

 and under the wing, is called the hypothera. Sometimes there is also a small cor- 

 neous piece round the stigma, styled the peritrema. The superior portion of each 

 segment, wliich the author calls fergtim, is divided into four pieces, named, from 

 their position in each ring, prsescutum, scutum, VLudpostscutellum. The first is fre- 

 quently, and the fourth almost always, concealed in the interior. Naturalists have 

 seldom distinguished any other part of the mesothorax but the scutellum, which is 

 frequently remarkable for its large size and its configuration, although an analogous 

 piece is found in the three segments. Thus the trunk of Insects may be divided 

 into thirty-three principal parts, and, if we count the hypothera, the number will 

 amount to forty-three, more or less visible in the interior. From these pieces, 

 besides, arise various internal productions, which, on account of their uses and im- 

 portance, require to be named: thus, from the posterior portion of the sternum of 

 each segment, a vertical apophysis arises internally, sometimes shaped like a Y, 

 called by M. Audouin the entothorax. It furnishes insertions to muscles and pro- 

 tects the medullary cord; an analogous one is seen in the head and sometimes in 

 the first annuli of the abdomen. Other internal prominences result from the pro- 

 longation of the external neighbouring pieces that are soldered together. M. Au- 

 douin names them apodema (apodemes^. Some of them give insertion to muscles, 

 others to the wings: — finally, there are other small movable pieces either internally 

 and between the muscles, or at the base of the wings, which our author styles the 

 (epldemes) epidema. We have stated that the principal pieces, or vestiges of them, 

 are always to be found, but they are frequently far from being separable. In par- 

 ticular genera, or in certain orders, many are only to be distinguished by traces of 

 sutures. M. Audouin — Diet. Class. d'Hist. Nat., art- Insedes — has since substi- 

 tuted the name ofparaptera for that of hypoptera. That of entothorax will also be 

 changed, in some situations, into entocephala, relative to the head — and into ento- 

 gaster, as respects the abdomen. He remarks that tiie head of Insects is composed 

 of several segments. We have also observed, that the rostrum of the Cicadse, repre- 



