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It is of a blackish lead color; a, end of tibia bearing a tenant hair, with the tarsal joint and large claw; b, spring; c, the third joint of the spring, with the little spine at the base; figure 163, the supposed ovipositor; a, the two blades spread apart; b, side view. The mouth-parts in this genus are much as in Tomocerus, the maxillæ ending in a lacinia and palpus.

The body of the adult fly is stout and hairy, and it is easily recognized by having the opening of the mouth very small, the mouth-parts being very rudimentary.

The mouth-parts of the caterpillar exist in the moth. They are aborted in the adult. While the maxillæ are as a rule greatly developed in the moth, in the caterpillar they are minute and almost useless. The labium or second maxillæ, so large in the moth, serves simply as a spinneret in the caterpillar.

The eyes are situated at the sides, and just in front of them is a pair of short antennæ which vary with the different species. The mouth-parts too vary greatly according to the feeding habits. Some mosquito larvæ are predaceous, feeding on the young of other species or on other insects. These of course have their mouth-parts fitted for seizing and holding their prey.

There are the same rigid integuments, of the red of a cough-lozenge or virgin wax; the same cephalic mask, in which the future mouth-parts are represented by faintly marked tubercles; the same thoracic studs, which are the vestiges of the legs; the same distribution of the stigmata. I was therefore firmly convinced that the parasite of the Mantis-hunters could only be a Meloid.

At first the head is indicated by the buds forming the rudiments of limbs; the segments to which they are attached do not form a true head until after the mouth-parts have attained their jaw-like characters, and it is not until the insect is about to be hatched, that the head is definitely walled in. We have arrived, then, at our Leptus, with a head bearing two pairs of jaws.

The tip of the abdomen is furnished with a pair of movable organs, which in the male are variously modified and serve as clasping organs at mating time. The mouth-parts of the mosquito have just been described. It will be remembered that the labrum is provided with a groove. Just back of the pharynx is the esophagus which leads to the beginning of the stomach.

To do this, they would require mouth-parts endowed with a certain strength and, in particular, horny and sturdy jaws, whereas their jaws are so fine that a microscopic examination failed to show them to me.

The common House fly, Musca domestica, scarcely needs an introduction to any one of our readers, and its countenance is so well known that we need not present a portrait here. But a study of the proboscis of the fly reveals a wonderful adaptability of the mouth-parts of this insect to their uses. We have already noticed the most perfect condition of these parts as seen in the horse fly.

What strikes me is the sudden inertia of the antennae and the mouth-parts, organs which in the victims of most of the Hunting Wasps continue to move for so long a time.