IN CEETAIN LEPIDOPTEEA. 273 



matter to which I have already alluded, — the thick mass of dislodged hody-scales with 

 which we frequently find the chitiuous armature clogged, particularly its serrate parts. 

 How came those scales there ? The answer is patent. This apparatus has been provided 

 to enable the male butterfly to grasp and hold the female during the process of impre- 

 gnation. And these accumulated scales show that this very individual insect had been 

 so engaged only just before its capture and death. 



I have hence no hesitation in assigning a distinctive epithet to the organ in question ; 

 and it is known, throughout this memoir, by the term Harpe (apirri, a grappling iron)*. 



It is the rule, subject to very rare exceptions, that when the two valves are closed, as 

 generally during life, the chief armed parts of the two harpes approach each other at a 

 poiut in space, within the post-anal cavity, exactly where the tip of the uncus comes 

 down from above. Hence I infer that the function of this latter organ is similar and 

 ancillary to that of the harpes — the three combined constituting a threefold grip, which 

 it would be difficult to break. 



It seems scarcely credible that elaborate instruments, such as these, so constantly 

 present in this popular family, and so readily found, should not have already been the 

 subjects of ample examination and familiar knowledge. Yet, with the exception of 

 Dr. De Haan's brief allusion to the " lateral appendages," and one equally brief in Dr. 

 Burmeister's latest work, the ' Lepidoptera of the Argentine Republic ' t, I know not any. 



I have already spoken with admiration of the surprising variety which the prehensile 

 apparatus displays ; it is in the harpes that the extreme diversity mainly resides. 



Yet it is by no means a vague, come-by-chance variation ; it does not extend to 

 individuals of the same species. I have, in many instances, examined several examples 

 of the same species, and have always found that the identity of the harpe is wonderfully 

 close and minute, the diversity very trifling. 



3. The Uncus. 



The eighth segment of the abdomen, in the male of Ornithoptera and Papilio, in 

 general, has the posterior % outline of its dorsal arch produced in the middle line, and 

 terminating in a point, with receding sides ; so that, looked at vertically from above, it is 



* Dr. WTiite has used the term harpago for the organ which, in the other Bhopaloeera, appears to represent the 

 valve and harpe united. But, in the Papilionidae, where these are separate, it is de irahle that they should receive 

 separate designations. The terms harpago and harpe are sufficiently distinct : while they bear a relation to-each other 

 not unlike that of the things designated. 



t " Entre ces deux valvules, se trouve, dans lo fond de la cavite, l'ouverture sexuelle, aftcompagne'e, principalement 

 chez les males, par des appendices en forme de tenaille, qui renferine 1'organe male, le penis." I conjecture that, by 

 these " appendages in form of pincers,'* he means the harpes. But the term is vague, and T do not feel quite sure. 



J To avoid ambiguity, I would distinctly notify to the reader that I shall use terms of relative position, as back 

 and front, before and behind, in describing the organs of the genital cavity, as if they were independent organisms, 

 and not parts of the entire animal. Thus, if I speak of the uncus, 1 might describe it as narrowing behind the tip ; 

 of the smaller seaphium-tooth as behind the larger; of the aristae of the cheeks as directed backwards; of the sheath 

 of the penis as running back to its base. Now, in each of these cases, the direction intended is certainly from the 

 tail towards the head of the insect; yet, limiting our attention to these orgaus.it would lie most unnatural and 

 misleading, to speak, for instance, of the tip of the penis as its hinder portion, of the basal bulb as its front. In 

 speaking of the abdomen generally, or of its segments, I shall use the ordinary terms, as above. 



SECOND SERIES. — ZOOLOGY, VOL. II. 39 



