Report of Entomologist. 
375 
rostrum,” “ the head vertical, its anterior end prolonged and narrowed 
in the form of a proboscis;” as the insect in hand has only a short 
nose or snout, not prolonged into a slender narrow proboscis, and 
the head not held vertically downward, but horizontally backward, 
with the mouth pressed upon the breast; he concludes in full confi¬ 
dence that it cannot pertain to this family. And, on comparing it 
with the other families of this order, he finds no place where it 
appears to belong. So anomalous is it, that the student in this science 
will be embarrassed by it in whatever direction he turns. Even Mr. 
Newman, though he had made the insects of this order his particular 
study, was unable to decide as to the particular family to which it 
pertains. 
By dissecting its mouth, Mr. Westwood obtained such details as to 
show the family Panorpidos to be its true place, notwithstanding it 
differs so notably from all the other genera of this family as to make 
its association with them appear quite incongruous. And it is not 
that it is intimately related to them, but that it is more nearly related 
to them than to the genera of any other family that makes this family 
its true place. 
The following are the points in which this insect corresponds with 
the typical genera of this family : 1st. The upper lip is prolonged to 
an acute point, forming with the other organs of the mouth a beak 
or rostrum, which is the essential distinction of this family, although 
here this beak is short, scarcely longer than thick, whilst there it is 
long and slender, four times as long as thick. 2d. The upper jaws 
are longer than wide, and have two sharp teeth at their tips. 3d. The 
maxillary feelers are thread-like and five-jointed, the joints little 
longer than thick, the last one oval. 4th. The veins of the wings 
coincide with those of the genus Panorpa more closely than with 
those of any other insects of this order. 5th. In the female the body 
gradually tapers to an acute point, which is furnished with two 
minute threads which are here two-jointed, and in Panorpa three- 
jointed. And 6th, as we now know, in the males the tip of the 
body is armed, the armature here being a pair of very long stout 
forceps, whilst there it is a pair of stout sharp hooks. 
But the points in which this insect differs from its associates in this 
family are much more numerous and notable. Allusion has just been 
made to the great dissimilarity of their beaks, short, and turned back¬ 
ward in the one, in the others long and slender, and hanging down in 
front like the trunk of an elephant ; and of the armature at the end of 
the body in the males, which is here, a formidable pair of forceps held 
