140 
(’ONSKTT I)AVrS, 
The tarsi of all lepjs are tlireo-st'Kinented. Tlie first sejgment of the fore 
tarsi is gn^atly inflated, housing tlie spinning-glands, which discharge by 
hollow setae on the plantar surface, 'fhe seconil l(*gs are wiakly developed. 
The liind femora are always greatly swollen, housing the (mlargcd depressor 
tibiai! muscles by whose contra(;tion the irisiud is able to dart backwards 
very rapidly. The first two segments of the hind tarsus have their plantar 
surfaces variously beset with vesicles and stiff setae, these being important 
systematic characters. 
The male terminalia, the most important taxonomic criteria, are best 
understood by reference to the lar\'al form, with which the adult female 
agrees essentially except in the yiresence of a transverse genital aperture 
on the posterior part of the eiglith alxlominal stisnite. In tlie larva, tlie 
ninth abdominal tergite is transverse, the tenth subtriangular. The ninth 
abdominal sternitt; is subcpiatlrate, th(i tenth divid('d by a median longitudinal 
cleft to t-wo triangular hemisternites. Bidwei'n thf'se and the bases of tlie 
cerci are subannular sclerites refern'd to as cercus-basipodites. These are 
very probably paraprocts, although American workers (e.*/., Snodgrass, 1035, 
Fig. 140F) refer to the structures heri' intin-preted as hemisternites of the 
tenth segTnent as paraproeds. Only a study of the late* embryological stages 
can finally decide this point, which is, however, unimportant in the internal 
classification of the Order. The cerci are two-s(igmented, each segment smooth 
and subcylindrical, the basal one thicker. 
In all species except Clothoda nohilis (Gerst.) (Amazon region), the tenth 
abdominal tergite of the male becomes cleft at the last eedysis, although fre- 
quently not to the base, so that two more or less di.stinct hemitergites are 
formed ; these are furnished with cojnilatory processes. The right cercus is 
usually little modified at the last eedysis, but the first segment of the left cercus 
is often greatly changixl, usually b(‘c.oming clavate and often dev{‘loj)ing 
echinulation on the inner surface. The second segmcxit may remain unclianged 
or, as in some Australian and Nortli American genera, may be partly or wholly 
resorb(.‘d into the first to form a comyjound structun'. 
The ninth alxlominal sternite sends out a distal process, whicli can inde(‘d 
be detected during the two previous instars in an incipient condition. Tliis 
process may possibly be equivalent to fu.s('d gonocoxites, so that the whole 
structure may be regarded as a hypandrium. Dor.sal to this jjrocess is the male 
genital aperture, usually situated among ill-defined membraneous .structures. 
The right hemisternito of the tenth abdominal segment, and the right cercus- 
basipodite, usually in part degenerate, sometimes remaining as small .sclerites 
unimportant functionally and taxonomically. llie left hemisternite and cercus- 
basipodite may r(;main di.stinct in the adult and develop processes, but more 
frecpiently they appear to form a composite structure, often with one or mor(' 
proces.ses, and usually referred to simply as the left cercus-ba,sipodite. 
The male terminalia are in some species probably the most cojnplex in the 
Class Insecta, the processes of the hemitergites, hypandrium, cerci, and left 
cercus-basipodite all a,ssisting in holding the unspecialised ftunale terminalia 
during copulation. 
Members of the Order feed prcxlorninantly on dead vegetable matter, 
more particulai-ly bark and fallen k'aves. Branching cylindrical tunnels of 
silk are .spun among the food material by means of the tarsal glands, and in 
these the insects live, being gregarious and subsocial, the female guarding the 
eggs and young larvae in an enlargement of the gallery. Most of the Western 
Australian records represent winged males, taken either at light or swarming 
under weather conditions .such as induce this phenomenon in Termites. Searcli 
