3o8 



LEPIDOPTERA 



comparatively broad piece, visible on the front edge of the 

 clypeus ; its lateral part usually forms a prominence which has 

 often been mistaken for a mandible ; Kellogg has applied the 

 term '" pilifer " to this part. In the middle of the lal;)rum a small 

 angular or tongue-like projection is seen just over the middle of 

 the base of the proboscis : this little piece is considered by 

 several authorities to be an epipharynx. 



Mandibles. — Savigny, Westwood, and others considered the 

 |)arts of the labrum recently designated pilifers by Kellogg to 

 be the rudimentary mandibles, but Walter has shown that this 



Fig. 159. — Mouth of Lepidoptera. Tiger-motli, Arctia caja. A, Seen from front ; B, 

 from front and below. «, Clypeus ; b, labrum ; c, epipharynx ; d, mandibular 

 area ; iV, prominence beneath mandibular area ; c, one side of haustellum or pro- 

 boscis ; /, maxillary palp ; g, labial palp. 



is not the case.^ The mandibles are usually indistinguish- 

 able, though they, or some prominence possibly connected witli 

 them,^ may frequently be detected in the neighbourhood of 

 the pilifers ; they are, according to Walter, largest and most 

 perfectly developed in Eriocephala, a genus that was not dis- 

 tinguished by him from Micropteryx and was therefore termed 

 " niedere Micropteryginen," i.e. lower Micropteryges. The 

 opinion entertained by Walter that Micropteryx proper (his 

 " hohere Micropteryginen ") also possesses rudimentary mandibles 

 is considered by Dr. Chapman, no doubt with reason, to be 

 erroneous.^ The mandibles, however, in the vast majority of 

 Lepidoptera can scarcely be said to exist at all in the imago ; 

 there being only an obtuse projection — ■ without trace of 



^ Jena. Zeitschr. Katunv. xviii. 1885, p. 751. 



2 The writer is not quite convinced that the supposed mandibles of these Macro- 

 lepidoptera are really entitled to be considered as such. 



3 Tr. cut. Soc. London, 1S93, p. 263. 



