IV. 



Some Recent Researches on Insect Anatomy. 



IN a recent review of Lowne's work on the Anatomy of the Blow-fly 

 in Natural Science (vol. i., p. 551), the question of the 

 morphology of the mouth parts in the sucking insects was discussed.' 

 Two noteworthy contributions to the subject have lately been made. 

 Leon (i) describes and figures from a photograph a rudimentary 

 three-jointed labial palp on either side of the base of the rostrum of 

 an undetermined hemipterous insect. It is clear from this that the 

 labial palps do not form any part of the rostrum in the Hemiptera, 

 and Leon supports Gerstfeldt's view that that organ represents the 

 parts of the labium (second pair of maxillae) except the palps. 



Of the mouth-parts of the Diptera, Miiggenburg (2) has lately 

 written, describing in detail the proboscis in the remarkable parasitic 

 group generally known as the Pupipara. These insects are dis- 

 tinguished from other Diptera by their metamorphosis, as far as the 

 pupal stage, taking place within the body of the mother ; and they 

 were, on this account, long separated as a distinct sub-order. Brauer, 

 however, considered them aberrant and degraded members of the 

 group to which the house-fly and blow-fly belong ; his view has been 

 shared by most recent writers on the Diptera, and is supported by 

 Miiggenburg's researches. The latter observer describes in detail 

 the mouth organs of Melophagus (the sheep-tick) and Braula (the bee- 

 louse). In the former insect the proboscis is elongated (Fig. i) as 

 it is also in Hippohosca (the horse-fly), Anapeva (the bird-louse), and 

 Lipoptena (the deer-fly), which all belong to the same family. In 

 Bvaula (Figs. 2, 3) and also in Nyctevihia (the bat-louse) the mouth- 

 parts are much shortened. In no case are mandibles present. The 

 maxillae (which it will be remembered are believed by Lowne to 

 form the larger part of the proboscis in the Diptera) are, accord- 

 ing to Miiggenburg, in the Pupipara represented by two elon- 

 gated structures (Fig. i, mx'), situated within the head capsule, 

 which, moved by a complicated system of muscles, assist in pro- 

 truding or withdrawing the proboscis to whose base their distal 

 extremities are applied. Maxillary palps are present in both 



1 In the last number of the Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (6), vol. xi., p. 45, Mr. C. O. 

 Waterhouse also criticises Professor Lowne's views on the structure of the 

 proboscis in the Diptera. 



