DERMATOPTERA. 
305 
short, broad submentum (and in front of the prosternum) is a free sclerite, 
with a transverse, median impressed line. (This sclerite may be called 
the postgula, and it may correspond to the praesternal sclerite in Blatta, 
except that no pleural sclerite is attached to it as in Blatta.) The rnen- 
tum is very large and flat, as long gs broad. 
THE THORAX. 
Notum. 
Pronotum. (Fig. 7.) Large, flat, square, a little longer than broad, 
and rounded behind. 
Mesonotum. (Fig. 8.) Somewhat as in Termes, being almost entirely 
concealed by the pronotum, which rides over it. It is very short 
indeed, remarkably so — no other insects approaching this group in this 
respect, while the metanotum is remarkably developed. Neither the 
meso- nor metanotum are so wide as the thorax, a broad margin of mem- 
brane bordering the sides. 
The mesoscutum forms a very short, transversely sublinear sclerite, 
with the front edge lull and curved, but linear (in a transverse sense) 
on the sides; behind, it receives the minute, diamoud-shaped scutellmn, 
which forms a posterior, spine like projection, which rubs or plays upon 
the medially chitinous frout edge of the metanotum. On each side of 
the scutellmn is a transverse, long, lanceolate-oval, chitinous sclerite, 
which we are disposed to regard as the divided postscutellum. There 
is no praescutnm, and in front of and behind the mesonotum the thorax 
is soft and membranous. 
Metanotum. (Fig. 8.) There is no prsescutum. The scutum is very 
large, nearly as broad as long, broad in front, narrowing behind, sinuous 
on the front edge, slightly rounded behind, the surface generally flat- 
tened, a little convex, with two parallel, slightly converging median 
ridges; behind these two ridges is the narrow, longitudinally some- 
what oblong scutellmn. It is not defined by suture, and I could not 
decide what it was until I had examined Labia, in which it is more dis- 
tinctly separated from the scutum; it is thick, dark, with a spine-like 
projection in front. 
The large, long and broad, more or less flat area between the scutum 
and first uromere we are disposed to regard as, without much doubt, 
an enormously developed postscutellum, especially as it is much shorter 
and more like the postscutellum of Labia. Its surface is broken up 
into areas; from behind the metascutellum two widely diverging ridges 
pass backward and outward to support the base of the wings. 
Pleurum. 
The pleurites are remarkable for being extended horizontally, and 
for the unusual form and relations of the epitnera, in these respects 
suggesting the Coleoptera, and perhaps the Staphyliuidae. The legs 
20 e o 
