A BUBBLE-BLOWING INSECT. 



the legs and the segments on the underside of the body. It 

 may be readily done, however, by immersing it in clear water 

 and manipulating it with a brush. If now it is again dried and 

 placed on the glass it will slowly secrete what spare fluid it has in 

 its body, but not the minutest bubble of air is seen to escape. 

 These experiments should be made on glass, for then one may get 

 transmitted light, and the highly refractive outlines of the air 

 bubbles are more quickly detected. Using a higher power with a 

 live cell, new features may be observed. Confining the insect in 

 this way, inclosed in a drop of water, a very clear proof is offered 

 that it gets all the air for its froth in the way I have described. 

 So long as the insect remains surrounded by water not the minutest 

 bubble of air is seen to escape from the body. During this im- 

 mersion the creature is incessantly struggling to reach the edge 

 of the drop, and no sooner has this been accomplished than it 

 thrusts out its tail and begins the clutching of air and the making 

 of bubbles. The bubbles, however, disappear as soon as made, as 

 the clear water will not preserve them. As the water becomes 

 slightly viscid from the insect's own secretions, the bubbles remain 

 for a longer time. A bubble will be partially released and then 

 held, or even partially withdrawn, between the claspers. 



The claspers seem to be the tergal portions of the ninth seg- 

 ment. On the sides of the seventh and eighth segments may be 

 clearly seen leaflike appendages, which are possibly branchial in 

 their nature (Figs. 5 and 6). They are extremely tenuous, and 

 appear like clusters of filaments, slightly adhering together and 

 forming lamellate appendages similar to the gill-like appendages 

 seen in the early stages of Potamanthus, a neuropterous insect, not, 

 however, having the definiteness of these structures. While in 



Fig. 5. — Showing underside of posterior 

 extremity of body with appearance of 

 branchiae. 



Fig. 6. — A single bronchia 

 under slight pressure. 



Potamanthus one may easily trace the ramifications of the tracheal 

 system, I have not been able to detect a similar connection with 

 these appendages in Aphrophora. Certainly the insect does not 

 depend upon these structures for respiration, as when the creature 

 is perfectly dry it seems to suffer no immediate inconvenience, but 



