“Relying on these facts, I maintain that the encroachment of the head on the prothorax is a consequence of the preponderance in size of the brain, and indicates the superiority of the Hymenoptera over other insects....”
That the pronotum is derived from the larval prothoracic segment is proved by the fact that the first pair of stigmata becomes what authors call the “prothoracic” stigmata of the perfect insect. But Bugnion thinks that the projection which carries it, and which he calls the shoulder (Figs. 41 and 42), belongs to the mesonotum.
=The antennæ.=—These are organs of tactile sense, but also bear olfactory, and in some cases auditory organs; they are usually inserted between or in front of the eyes, and moved by two small muscles at the base, within the head. In the more generalized insects the antennæ are simple, many-jointed appendages, the joints being equal in size and shape. The antennæ articulate with the head by a ball and socket joint, the part on which it moves being called the _torulus_ (Fig. 32, _r_). In the more specialized forms it is divided into the _scape_, the _pedicel_, and a _flagellum_ (or _clavola_); but usually, as in ants, wasps, and bees, there are two parts, the basal three-jointed one being the scape, and the distal one, the usually long filiform flagellum. The antennæ, especially the flagellum, vary greatly in form in insects of different families and orders, this variation being the result of adaptation to their peculiar surroundings and habits. The number of antennal joints may be one (Articerus, a clavigerid beetle), or two in Paussus and in _Adranes cœcus_ (Fig. 43^{ 12}), where they are short and club-shaped; in flies (Muscidæ, etc.), they are very short and with few joints, and when at rest lying in a cavity adapted for their reception. In the lamellicorn beetles the flagellum is divided into several leaves, and this condition may be approached in the serrate or flabellicorn antennæ of other beetles. In Lepidoptera, and in certain saw-flies and beetles, they are either pectinate or bipectinate, being in one case at least, that of the Australian Hepialid (_Abantiades argenteus_), tripectinate (Fig. 44), and in the dipterous (Tachinid) genus Talarocera the third joint is bipectinate (Fig. 45). In Xenos and in Parnus they may be deeply forked, while in Otiocerus, two long processes arise from the base, giving it a trifid shape. In dragon-flies and cicadæ, they are minute and hair-like, though jointed, while in the larvæ of many metabolous insects they are reduced to minute three-jointed tubercles. In aquatic beetles, bugs, etc., the antennæ are short, and often, when at rest, bent close to the body, as long antennæ would impede their progress.