389 



[^Ufiy'SQ 



The Dentition of the Diptera. 



By W. H. Harris. 



{Bead Octohcr llth, 1902.) 



Plate 19, 



It is scarcely a subject of common knowledge that many 

 species of Diptera indigenous to Great Britain possess organs 

 which, for the purpose of the insects, perform the function 

 of teeth. Flies do not, indeed, bite in the sense we ordinarily 

 understand the expression, but nevertheless special organs are 

 present in the flexible lobes of the haustellate mouths of very 

 many species which perform the function of teeth, enabling the 

 insects to add a little finely-divided solid material to the pabulum 

 upon which they feed. 



No doubt the members of this Club possess the knowledge 

 that certain species of Diptera are thus provided with teeth, 

 but probably even they are not aware of the wide distribution 

 of these structures in the extensive family Muscidae. Further, 

 they may not be aware that the various forms these organs 

 assume, their number and method of arrangement, supply an 

 almost unlimited field for investigation, which if systematically 

 conducted could not fail to prove interesting, and possibly of 

 scientific value in cases where a stucFy of the life-history and 

 habits of these insects is undertaken. 



The subject is by no means a new one, but, as far as I am 

 aware, it has not engaged the attention of many workers in 

 this country. My attention was first directed to it by some 

 correspondence which appeared in the pages of Science Gossip in 

 the year 1876, and in the years 1884 — 1887 I contributed a 



Journal Q. M. C, Series IJ. — No. 52. 26 



