The head is rounded and short, without prominent beetling ridges above the eyes, or a strong crest along the middle line of the back of the skull; and the tusks of the old males are of no very great length and prominence.
In old males the eyes are overhung by a beetling penthouse of bone, the hinder half of the middle line of the skull bears a wall-like bony ridge for the attachment of the powerful jaw-muscles, and the tusks, or canines, are of monstrous size, recalling those of a carnivorous animal.
The adjective "beetle-browed," and similarly "beetling" (of a cliff), are derived from the name of the insect.
A prodigiously long tail, beetling eyebrows with long black hairs, black ears, face, feet and hands, and a general greyish-brown colour of the fur are the distinctive characteristics of the langur.
The great head itself has snakes entwined within its beard, wings above its ears, beetling brows and a heavy mustache.